Bedtime Banishment
by celrock
Summary: When two-year-old Tommy Pickles sleeps over at Zack's apartment for the very first time, he's convinced that a bedtime routine isn't necessary. Post going home, he challenges this rule, amongst others, seeing he's now two, and entering the phase of the Terrible Twos, but he'll eventually learn the hard way, that sleep is important.
1. Heading to the Sleepover

Author's Note: I've been meaning to release this story since January of this year, when the idea originally came to me, inspired by how my 2-year-old nephew was acting around Christmas time at the end of last year, and obviously, life got in the way, delaying the release of this story. However, I'm finally going to sit down, and get this story released, and I do hope you enjoy it! Oh, and there may be points throughout this story where Tommy and other characters might act out of character at points, just a warning is all. With that said, let's move on, to the first chapter!

Bedtime Banishment

Summary: When two-year-old Tommy Pickles sleeps over at Zack's apartment for the very first time, he's convinced that a bedtime routine isn't necessary. Post going home, he challenges this rule, amongst others, seeing he's now two, and entering the phase of the Terrible Twos, but he'll eventually learn the hard way, that sleep is important.

Disclaimer: I do not own the original Rugrats characters, they're the property of their original creaters. I do own the OC's of Zack and his Aunty Celeste, while Jesse and his family are owned by Jesse Barrow Stories DEAD, and Peter is owned by TCKing12.

Chapter 1, Heading to the Sleepover

An empty passenger train, being pulled by a blue steam locomotive was heading down the track towards a roundhouse in the distance, just as the sun was setting in the sky. Inside the steam locomotive, was two-year-old Tommy, dressed in a train engineer's outfit, complete with the official hat worn on top of his dark purple hair that had started growing in post his second birthday, as he made his way towards the train yard. Meanwhile, in another section of the large layout of train tracks, Dil and Zack, wearing construction uniforms with hard hats on top of their toddler sized heads, were packing up their tools, and making their way over to where Tommy was wrapping up his rounds of train runs for the day. As they made their way over the deserted train tracks they had recently laid down, they saw several street lamps illuminating the area, as they approached the train yard, where Tommy had gotten out of his locomotive car and was undoing the cuffling bolts of each of the train cars, storing them in the train yard, before pulling his locomotive into the roundhouse for the night. Dil approached the caboose and grabbed at it, just as Tommy was undoing it from the cuffling bolt.

"That's my train!" Dil yelled out in his tiny baby voice.

Engineer Tommy turned towards his railroad construction working younger brother.

"No Dil, that's my train, and it's about time we finish up for the night. You and Zack did a good job on building the tracks though. Now, help me push this locomotive into the roundhouse." Ingeneer Tommy instructed, as he, Dil, and Zack tied some rope to one end of the locomotive, and the three of them, pushed it into the roundhouse, before the three of them came out, and Tommy closed the door behind him.

No sooner were the three of them standing in the train yard, admiring the work they had done, when two much taller ladies came out from behind a field of trees off to the side, stepping into the light illuminated by some lights on the front of the roundhouse. The figures appeared to be Tommy and Dil's mom Didi, and Zack's aunt Celeste.

"Time to get ready to go Tommy." Didi called.

At that moment, the darkened train yard transformed back into Tommy and Dil's bedroom, where sitting on the floor was a massive Brio train layout, complete with several mazes of tracks going in every which direction around the bedroom, two drawbridges, an extension bridge, and two tunnels, one of which was made from a mountain, and a toy roundhouse, and several toy trains made out of wood with metal wheels were on the tracks. Tommy, now back in his normal clothes, consisting of his light blue signature t-shirt and a pair of dark blue shorts, with no hat on his head was sitting on the floor next to the roundhouse, where he had just placed one of the locomotives inside, while Zack and Dil, now back in their regular attire, were sitting slightly further away, back in their regular clothes, Zack with his light blond hair, wearing a dark blue t-shirt and a diaper, and Dil, with a small tuff of strawberry red hair on his head now, wearing a green and yellow striped t-shirt and a diaper, sat on the floor of the bedroom, each holding some pieces of train track in their hands. Upon hearing Didi enter the room, the three toddlers looked up from their playing of trains, to find Didi and Celeste standing in the doorway, Celeste, holding Zack's diaper bag. This told Zack that his aunt had gotten off of work, and judging by looking out the window and seeing the sun setting in the sky, he knew it was time to head home. However, everybody had gotten so lost in their afternoon train adventure, that they forgot what was happening tonight. It had been two weeks since Tommy's second birthday party, and the end of the Gray Plague incident, and on this particular night, Tommy would be sleeping over at Zack's place for the very first time. Didi came over to her oldest child, ruffled his dark purple hair, making him giggle, as Tommy stood up next to the toy roundhouse, smiled up at his mother and giggled.

"I think somebody's excited about tonight." Didi commented with a smile.

Tommy then remembered what tonight was, and remembering this, he grew very excited, as it had been a very long time since he had gone to a sleepover at anybody's house, and to one by himself for that matter. Didi went over and picked up the large plastic box that held the train tracks inside of it, and everybody went around and started taking track apart, and putting the trains away. Normally, this part was a bit disheartening, but in actuality, this was one thing Tommy and Zack didn't mind picking up, as this only meant they could build an entirely new train layout to ride the rails on the following day, or the next time they played together. Everybody thought the Brio trains was something Tommy received for his second birthday, but Zack knew where it really came from, it was only a matter of time, before everybody else found out the truth. Of course, as with most things Tommy wanted to do, Chuckie was against them, and preferred playing with trains that went around a simple circular track, like the electric train they're seen playing with at the beginning of Hand-Me-Downs, and Murmer on the Ornery Express, but once Zack introduced Tommy to the Brio trains one rainy day within the last two weeks, when they couldn't go outside, prompting a new way to go on an imaginary adventure, Chuckie reluctantly went along with the idea of having train tracks go in all sorts of different directions, complete with bridges, tunnels, and so on, over the boring circle that Tommy had long since outgrown once introduced to the Brio stuff. Of course, he'd then complain about how when trying to build tracks, he'd try to connect the bumps together or the wholes together on two tracks, which didn't work, needing help from his sister Kimi, or Tommy and Zack to show him how the bumps went in the wholes, and often, because the redhead wouldn't move his fingers out of the way, he pinched his fingers when building the tracks. And of course, Phil and Lil would argue over how a bridge was suppose to go, or who should ride the train, whether it be Reptar, or a frait train full of mud and worms, and there was even the ocasional arguments over Reptar being too big to ride a train, arguing over how the characters of Tiny Buddy and Dawn from Dinosaur Train would ride trains, so why not Reptar too. Of course, the best part of all was that there was finally one toy that Angelica could care less for, because trains didn't interest her in the least, keeping her away while she watched TV or colored in the coloring book she brought with her to play with. However, on this particular day, only Zack showed up to play, but while they had fun together, Dil, who wasn't quite one-years-old yet, still had some social tendancies to work out, still grabbing at Tommy's trains, almost breaking the wheels off of a couple, and not sharing very well, demoting him to railroad construction, and on this particular day, Tommy decided to be the driver while Dil and Zack built track together. Sometimes, they'd play in this fashion, while other times, they'd pretend to be the train cars themselves, doing their own spoof on Thomas and Friends, obviously, Tommy was the number one engine, and because he went by Tommy, over his full name of Thomas most of the time, when pretending to be one of the locomotives, he'd call himself, Tommy the Tank Engine.

However, not only was it time for Zack to head home, but Tommy would be going with him, as he'd be sleeping over at his apartment, for the very first time! After all of the train tracks and trains were picked up, as the track, along with the bridges and tunnels were stored away in a large oversized plastic box, the train cars lived in a plastic bucket with Reptar on it, and the roundhouse was placed on top of the closed box of track. Once it was all picked up, Didi ran around and got Tommy's overnight bag packed, put him into a fresh diaper, and gave him a hug and a kiss, Dil crawling over and doing the same, before Celeste, now carrying Tommy's overnight bag over her shoulder, holding Zack's hand with one hand, with Tommy leading the way, all headed downstairs, where Stu met them at the bottom.

"Have fun tonight Champ." Stu said, patting Tommy on the head and giving him a hug and kiss.

"Thank you for letting Zack stay over today while I went to work." Celeste said, walking towards the door where she grabbed her white cane that she had stashed in the corner.

"No problem. Tommy and Dil love having Zack over to play." Stu said with a smile, seeing Celeste, Tommy, and Zack out the door, as they headed down the sidewalk to the driveway where Celeste's purple driverless van was parked.

"We'll see you tomorrow!" Celeste called in the direction of Tommy's house, as she strapped Tommy and Zack into two car seats she had in the middle seat of the van, then went around to the driver's side door and got in herself.

"Goodbye Celeste, goodbye Tommy." Stu called from the front door, waving goodbye, as he then closed it behind him.

Soon, Celeste was in the car, starting it up and putting the coordinates into the on board GPS computer, insuring that it drove everybody back to her apartment. Once the car was backing out of Tommy's driveway, Zack turned to Tommy, a sleepy look in his eyes.

"I'm excited about tonight, how about you Tommy?" Zack asked.

Tommy turned to Zack and smiled.

"Me too! I've never slept over before, and I think it will be lots of fun!" Tommy replied happily.

Just then, Zack let out a huge yawn, as he closed his eyes and drifted off for a short nap, seeing the movement of the car often made him sleepy. This would sometimes be the case for Tommy too, but not quite like with Zack. Tommy would be more likely to get sleepy when returning from an exciting adventure. However, he was too excited to sleep, as he turned and looked out the window, seeing all of the street lights, houses, and other buildings wiz by, as he thought back to the last time he slept away from home by himself with only one of his other friends. It then hit him that the last time he recalled this to be true, was when he slept over at Chuckie's, after he got his big boy bed, and he thought there was a monster under his bed, and Tommy helped convince his best pal to stand up to the monster. He couldn't believe that it had been that long, as most of the sleepovers since then took place at his house, and most of them consisted of Chuckie, Phil and Lil, like that time they saved grandpa Lou from the monster in the matress, or the time Tommy wished for an airplane, and they awoke the following morning to find his house soaring through the clouds. In fact, the last time he recalled it being just him and Chuckie was a sleepover at his house, when they were worried the sandman would come to get them, and in the end, Chuckie's daddy showed up and rescued them from the sandman, after destroying him with buckets of water they threw at him when he got inside the basement. However, after that, Dil was born, and a time after that, they all went to Paris, and Chuckie got a little sister Kimi. Gone were the days when the dynamic duo would ever be alone together for a sleepover, wherever it took place, so this was kind of a special treat for Tommy, even though he'd miss his little brother, Dil had to make do without him when he was in the hospital with the Gray Plague, surely he'd be fine for just one night. And while they had all slept over at Angelica's one night, when they told that ghost story of finding the light in the attic, realizing that tonight was Tommy's first sleepover at Zack's made him think back to the first time he ever slept over at Chuckie's.

His mommy and daddy were going away for a long weekend, and in Tommy's memory, it was the longest time he had ever been away from home, even though prior to this, he had spent a long weekend at his maternal grandparents, and he and Angelica discovered the toys hidden in their attic, that one more or less, slipped his mind, because he was with family members the entire time, while when he slept at Chuckie's, nobody in his family was there. However, while he figured it would all be fun and games with his best friend, who had slept at Tommy's house several times prior to this, like when he thought his daddy was a robot and when Chuckie was getting potty trained to name a couple of them, Tommy had only been over there for a few hours to play at most, so he wasn't around to go through the strict routines Chuckie had in place of having to pick up his toys at the end of the day, or go right to sleep at night post lights out. Nor was Tommy ever over for breakfast prior, thus, getting some unpleasant experiences of trying Dummi Bears Sugar Lumps for the first time, and having to watch the most boring TV show on earth, Space Trek Babies. However, in the end, he learned a valuable lesson that everybody does things in their homes differently, and not only was he looking forward to spending the night at Zack's, he was going to try to do his best, to respect how things were done in his home, as best as possible.

" _As long as I don't gotta eat that yucky Dummi Bears cereal, or watch Space Trek Babies, I'm ready for anything._ " Tommy thought to himself, just as Zack's aunt's driverless van turned into the parking lot of their apartment complex.

And this, ends the first chapter. So, how will the sleepover go? Find out, come the next chapter!

Author's Note: My nephew has become a big fan of trains, and got a bunch of Brio stuff last Christmas, which helped to prompt this idea, and while the Rugrats were never as big into trains, I always imagined how things might go if they ever did have access to a massive toy train layout like the Brio type stuff. I also made reference to several Rugrats episodes, those being, Hand-Me-Downs, Murmer on the Ornery Express, The Matress, Send in the Clouds, Sleep Trouble, Real or Robots, Chuckie vs. the Potty, Ghost Story, Toys in the Attic, Under Chuckie's Bed, and The Odd Couple, where while it's never exactly mentioned that it was Tommy's first time sleeping over at Chuckie's house in The Odd Couple episode, just by much of the dialogue, in particular, Tommy's lines in the episode, it's pretty obvious that he's never slept over at Chuckie's house prior to this episode, and seeing that in production order and airing order, it airs before Under Chuckie's Bed, and in episodes before The Odd Couple, Chuckie slept at Tommy's, but not the other way around, this is most likely true, assuming all of the episodes, minus holiday specials, actually took place in the order they aired where real time is concerned. Also, most of the sleepovers post Dil's birth and the trip to Paris were at Tommy's, not Chuckie's, which was another thing I sort of made reference to, with Tommy thinking it had been a very long time since he had last slept over at anybody else's house, and certainly just him and one of his friends, now that he and Chuckie both had siblings, but because Zack is an only child, that obviously, wouldn't be the case this time, unless Tommy and Dil had both gone to the sleepover, which as seen, only Tommy is attending. And yes, this story takes place not long post the events of Rugrats and the Gray Plague. Anyway, hope you all enjoyed the first chapter, and, I should hopefully, have chapter two up soon, and before Rugrats airs for two hours beginning at midnight on The Splat! Perhaps they'll replay The Odd Couple tonight too, and anybody who's read this chapter by then and is rewatching the episode can now see why I'm pretty sure that episode was in fact, Tommy's first sleepover at Chuckie's, even if it's not stated as an actual fact, context clues in the episode itself give it away. I also cleared up the continuity error presented, where Tommy mentions it's the longest he's ever been away from home, figuring he meant the longest he's ever been away from home without any family members around, as technically, he was with his cousin and maternal grandparents in Toys in the Attic prior, so while that was being away from home for a long weekend without his parents, it wouldn't count since he was still with family members, but this was the first time he was without any family members at all come The Odd Couple.


	2. The Sleepover at Zack's

Author's Note: Sorry for taking so long to get the next chapter up. I found I got distracted last night while watching Rugrats on The Splat, though I should mention, that while they didn't air The Odd Couple during last night's two hour marathon, they did air two of the other episodes referenced in the last chapter. Then today, I guess I'm still a bit more tired than I thought. No matter, I'm back with the next chapter, so I hope you enjoy!

Chapter 2, The Sleepover at Zack's

"Destination complete!" The voice from the driverless car called out, just as it pulled into a parking space into the parking lot at the apartment complex.

Just then, as Celeste switched off the driverless van, Zack awoke with a start, looking around and recognizing where they were.

"We're home Zachary and Tommy." Celeste said, getting out of the van and coming around to get the two boys out of their car seats, gathering up her purse, Zack's diaper bag, and Tommy's overnight bag.

Once everybody was out of the van, Celeste handed the electronic keys to Zack, and let him press the button to close the doors and lock them.

"Wanna help aunty Celeste lock up the car?" Celeste asked.

Zack smiled and giggled, as he pressed the correct buttons on the remote to close the two sliding doors, followed by the button to lock the car. Once they were done, the three of them walked up a sidewalk passing by all of the apartments, until they got to their front door. While walking, Tommy turned to Zack.

"Wow Zack, you live at the tired center?" Tommy asked, as the outside of the apartment complex looked similar to the complex his grandpa Lou and grandma Lulu lived in.

"No silly, me and my aunty live in a partment complex, and look! Here's our partment, up ahead!" Zack said excitedly, pointing to his front door, as it came into view.

The building was an ordinary red brick building, with what appeared to be several brown front doors in a row, leading into each person's apartment. It was like a neighborhood of houses, only with no yards separating them. As soon as Zack saw his front door, which was the fifth one in down the sidewalk, he turned the corner, and Celeste and Tommy turned right along with him, as the three of them made their way up to the front door. Celeste put the key into the lock, opened up the door, and had everybody head inside. Just as they headed up to the small porch, the lights all turned on automatically, as a security precaution, so that Zack would have light to see by, even though Celeste didn't need it because of her blindness, though in actuality, all of the apartments did this to keep burglers away.

"Ah, home sweet home. You and Tommy go play Zack, while I get supper ready, and soon, we'll eat while watching the made for TV Reptar movie." Celeste said with a smile, as she kissed the top of her nephew's head, then left the two boys in the small entry hallway, while she disappeared around the corner into another room, then off to Zack's room to stash Tommy's bag.

Once Celeste was out of sight, Zack turned to Tommy, who was looking around the apartment with curiosity.

"Want me to give you a tour?" Zack asked.

"Sure!" Tommy replied, as Zack took Tommy's hand, and the two of them headed into the living room, to begin the tour.

They went through each of the rooms, and Zack pointed out what each room was. They went to the kitchen, which was deserted at this point because Celeste hadn't returned from changing out of her work clothes to start making dinner. Zack pointed over to the table where there were two seats with booster seats on them.

"Those are the seats where we'll sit to eat Tommy." Zack explained, pointing to the chairs with the booster seats on them.

They then went back into the living room, where Zack showed Tommy the TV remote on the coffee table, his collection of DVD's, and their large, flat screen TV, as well as the comfy red couch.

"Me and my aunty watch TV in here, and sometimes, I'll play in here too." Zack said.

Tommy looked around and noticed that Zack didn't have a playpen.

"No playpen?" Tommy asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Nope, don't need one. I do have a tiny backyard though, where we can play when it's daylight." Zack explained, pointing out a huge window in the living room that looked out into the tiny backyard.

Unfortunately, neither of the toddlers could see much, because it was already dark outside. Tommy did see where the back door was in the kitchen, and the keys hanging on the hook on the wall near by, which he assumed were for that door. After they explored the living room, they went into a hallway, where Tommy noticed three doors. Two of them were open, while one of them was closed.

"Where does the closed door go Zack?" Tommy asked, heading for that door and reaching up to the doorknob.

Just then, Zack grabbed his hand and jerked it away.

"No Tommy, that's the bathroom. We only go in there to take a bath when my aunty's with us. Otherwise, the door stays closed, and we're to stay out." Zack said sternly.

"Oh." Tommy said.

"You're not, you know, potty trained, are you?" Zack asked.

Tommy pulled down his blue shorts to reveal his diaper underneath.

"Thank you, that answers my question. Me neither. Of course, I'm not even a-year-old yet. I wish I could use the potty though. Just think, freedom, and no more growed ups needing to change my diapies." Zack explained, walking further down the hall where there were two open doors across from one another, and another door at the very end of the hall that remained closed.

Tommy was shocked. He had never actually met another baby before who looked forward to getting potty trained. Even he wasn't really looking forward to the day he'd lose his diapers. Where would he keep his screwdriver? However, now wasn't the time to worry about such things. Now was the time, to enjoy his sleepover at Zack, and enjoy what time he had left in diapers before the dreaded day came around. He at least had pockets in the shorts he was wearing, and only hoped he got to keep those, after losing his diapers.

"Where does this door go?" Tommy asked, pointing to the closed door at the end of the hall.

"Oh, that's a closet. The open door to the left is my aunty's room. We're not allowed in there, but we are welcome into the open door on my right, because that's my room!" Zack cried excitedly, walking into his room, with Tommy following close behind him.

The lights were already turned on, and Tommy noticed his overnight bag off to one side of the floor against the wall. He looked around the room, and saw some lovely white furniture, consisting of a dresser, a book shelf, a changing table, and a rocking chair. He saw some baskets filled with toys next to the door, and noticed the carpet was a slightly darker shade of blue than the carpets at his own house. However, the thing that really caught his eye, back in the far left-hand corner of Zack's room, stood one of those racecar beds. It was no ordinary bed though. It was light green, just like Reptar, and at the head of the bed was Reptar's tail, while at the foot was Reptar's head. It was like his Reptar wagon, only a bed instead.

"Wow neat! A Reptar bed!" Tommy exclaimed, pointing to Zack's bed.

"Yep. And on the bed are my Super Why sheets." Zack explained, pointing to the sheets on the bed, and the different characters.

"Look, here's Wiatt, here's Princess Pea, here's Red, and here's Pig." Zack explained, pointing to the different characters on the sheets.

However, Tommy had never heard of Super Why before, so none of this looked familiar to him. He did know Reptar very well, and was fascinated by this really cool bed Zack had.

"That's a really neat bed Zack." Tommy commented.

"Thanks! Wanna see something really neat?" Zack asked, as he ran over to the light switch and shut off the lights.

This entire time, Tommy still had his eyes on the Reptar racecar bed, when all of the sudden, Reptar's eyes on his face lit up.

"See Tommy? Reptar's eyes glow in the dark! Of course, I can turn them off, and, I can also make his entire head light up." Zack said, climbing on his bed and reaching up to a switch on one of Reptar's scales on his head.

He pushed it in one direction, causing the eyes to shut off, then flipped it back in another direction, causing the entire head to light up, then flipped the switch back to the middle, where only the eyes lit up, glowing red, while when the head was lit up, it appeared a bright green. After demonstrating the bed to Tommy, he ran over and turned the lights back on, then stared down at his basket full of blocks.

"Wow! That's a really neat bed Zack, I bet you have lots of fun getting to sleep inside Reptar every night, huh." Tommy said.

"Yeah, I sleep there sometimes." Zack replied.

" _Sometimes?_ " Tommy thought to himself, confused again.

He thought about asking Zack about that, but was quickly interrupted from his thoughts when Zack spoke up, changing the subject entirely.

"Hey! We've got time to play before dinner, wanna build a block city and make Reptar knock it down?" Zack asked, pulling out his Reptar doll out of one of the baskets.

"Sure!" Tommy said, running over to the basket full of blocks.

The two boys dumped its contents on to the floor, and got to work, building a huge block tower together. Meanwhile, Celeste had changed clothes, had returned to the living room, where she switched on the television, then got to work in the kitchen preparing dinner. Back in Zack's room, they had built a massive tower, similar to the huge city Angelica was having the babies build in Thumbs Up. A few minutes later, once they were done, Zack picked up his Reptar doll and handed it to Tommy.

"Here, you be Reptar first, after all, you're the guest." Zack said.

"Okay. Roar!" Tommy cried, pretending to be Reptar, as he jammed the toy into the block city, and knocked it down.

No sooner had the blocks scattered everywhere on the carpet, when the two boys heard an all-too familiar voice calling their names in the distance.

"Tommy, Zack, dinner will be ready shortly." Celeste called.

Tommy looked around at the mess of blocks that lay on the floor before him.

"Uh, Zack, don't you think we ought to pick up first?" Tommy asked.

"Oh don't worry about it Tommy, my aunty will pick them up later." Zack said, noticing he was somewhat trapped, because he was across the room, with several blocks scattered on the floor before him.

"On second thought, it would make it easier to get out of here without hurting ourselves. Here, let's clean up the blocks together." Zack said, picking up a hand full of blocks and tossing them randomly into the box.

Tommy however, started going around, and remembering what he learned at Chuckie's, he started putting all of the orange blocks together, then yellow ones, and so on, lining them up on the floor.

"Tommy, what are you doing! Just, toss them in the box!" Zack cried impatiently.

"You mean, we don't gotta put them away by size and color?" Tommy asked.

Zack just gave him a dirty look.

"What are you crazy? Of course not! We just want them off of the floor. Come on." Zack protested, as he kept tossing random blocks of different shapes and colors into the box.

Tommy threw his piles of orange and yellow blocks he had lined up into the box, not caring where they landed.

" _Wow, picking up blocks here is a lot easier than it ever was at Chuckie's._ " Tommy thought to himself, as the last few blocks were picked up off of the floor, and the toddlers pushed the basket back towards the wall so neither one of them, or Aunty Celeste would trip over it later.

Once they were threw, Zack took his Reptar doll, and the two boys headed out into the living room, where they smelled the aroma of cheese fill the air, and the TV was on, airing a game show. Tommy sat on the floor, and after watching the show for a few minutes, he noticed it looked very familiar.

"Wow! I know this show, my mommy was on this." Tommy said, pointing to the TV which was airing an episode of Super Stumpers.

At that moment, a shot of the two contestants behind their podiums appeared, neither of which looked like Tommy's mom.

"Your mommy's not on this show." Zack scoffed.

"No, she was on there a long time ago." Tommy said.

"Oh. Well that's cool, but what I'm looking forward to is the made for TV Reptar movie, which is coming up next!" Zack cried.

Now Tommy had heard commercials for it all week on TV, but while he'd point to the TV and get really excited whenever the commercial came on, his mommy, who was usually watching with him at the time, wasn't sure about letting him stay up past his bedtime to watch the movie, as she'd comment on it every time. Little did he know he'd be sleeping over at Zack's on the night of the movie.

"Uh, Zack, after dinner, isn't it going to be bedtime soon? My mommy toldid me that the Reptar movie was coming on after bedtime." Tommy said.

"Bedtime, what's that?" Zack asked.

Tommy gasp. First, Zack couldn't wait to get out of wearing diapers forever. Secondly, there were no strict rules in terms of how the blocks were picked up, or even if they were picked up, but this one was a huge shock. What baby didn't know about bedtime.

"Come on Zack, you know, bedtime, when your aunty probably reads you a story, tucks you into your blankie, and you drink a nice warm bottle of milk before falling asleep?" Tommy asked.

"Oh, no. We don't do stuff like that. Well okay, so I'll usually have a bottle of hot milk, but most nights, we just, fall asleep whenever we're ready to do so." Zack replied.

"I don't understand." Tommy said, turning his gaze away from the TV, no longer interested in watching Super Stumpers.

Just then, Celeste came in, carrying two lap trays that she placed on the floor. Zack sat near one of them, while Tommy went to the other, a bit confused, as they were facing the TV. He did notice the living room was carpeted, just as Celeste returned with their plates and two sippy cups. On each of the plates were some nachos with melted cheese on top, a cup of banana yogurt on Tommy's plate with a cup of blueberry yogurt on Zack's plate, some cut up hotdog, and a small portion of red grapes and frozen blueberries.

"Mmmm! Hot chips and cheese, hotdog, yogurt, grapes, and frozen blueberries! All of my favorite foods!" Zack cried, digging into his plate.

"But wait, aren't we spose to eat in the kitchen?" Tommy asked, just as he turned and saw Celeste sit down on the sofa with her plate in her lap, complete with a chicken anchilotta, and some rice on top.

"No no Tommy, we're gonna eat while we watch the rest of Super Stumpers and the Reptar movie." Zack said.

Again, Tommy couldn't believe it. Even in his house, eating in the living room in front of the TV was forbidden. He was expecting this visit to be a lot more like staying at Chuckie's house, only so far, it proved to be just the opposite, and even opposite from his own home, as after Dil was born, seems things got more strict in his home, as with having a little brother who often cried if awakened before he was ready, going to sleep at night was more or less, in order, no its, ands, or buts.

"Come on Tommy, you're two now, right?" Zack asked, in between bites of hot chips and cheese.

"Uh huh." Tommy replied, before taking another bite of his banana yogurt.

He didn't much care for the yogurt, as he liked other flavors better, but decided to be polite and not say anything.

"Come on Tommy, I may be much younger than you, heck, I haven't even had my firstest birpday yet, but I happen to know that the year of being two is well, the transitional two's." Zack explained.

"The transitional twos? What do you mean?" Tommy asked.

"Tommy, at age two, I've heard that it's when babies drift away from being babies, and not only that, but the growed ups try to really start running our lives. Once you turn two, I hear everything changes. It's harder to go off on aventures, play rough with our toys, and even bedtime routines become more strict. I don't gots a mommy and daddy no more, only my aunty, and she promised me a life of freedom and happiness. Now Tommy, it's your chance for that freedom. Just think, I mean, can you honestly say you like that thing called, bedtime? If you were home tonight, you wouldn't be getting to watch the Reptar movie." Zack said.

Tommy just stood up from his food, which was mostly gone now, except for the blueberries on his plate, and stood up, his back against the sofa. He thought about it for a few minutes, and while he was always use to being put to bed at hnight, and sleeping in his bed most nights, except for that one night after Dil was born when he drug his pillow and one of his dad's slippers into the closet, upset by Dil taking away his mommy and daddy's attention from him when he started crying, interrupting story time with his mommy to have a lullaby sung to him to get him to stop, he did realize that there were nights when he wasn't ready to go to bed, especially when something was on his mind, like when his aunt Miriam came to visit and wondering if she was an ant from outer space, or that time his grandpa put him and Chuckie to bed early to try to hide Morgonna from them, but never in a million years did he imagine never having to go to bed when his parents wanted him to every night.

"Come on Tommy, don't be a baby. You could live like me, if you just, challenged the limits." Zack said.

Tommy stood there, frozen, his mouth gaped open. After all, he was usually the one saying stuff like that to Chuckie when he refused to go on one of his adventures with him, never in a million years would he meet someone who would be talking down to him other than Angelica, but even at Angelica's house, she had strict rules, even if she was constantly challenging them, getting the babies to do all of her things for her, like cleaning up her room.

"Okay Zack, I get it. You do things differently around here. I guess, I can give it a try. After all, at my house, we'd never be allowed to eat in front of the TV." Tommy said, taking a seat back in front of his plate and trying one of the frozen blueberries.

"Mmmm, cold." Tommy commented, after eating one of the blueberries.

"That's cuz they're frozen. Someday, when you start getting more teeth, as that's something else I hear we'll be getting as we get biggerer, and I hear it hurts, you'll thank me for introducing you to frozen blueberries." Zack said.

Tommy wouldn't admit it, but because of being born two months premature, while he didn't suffer from any major delays, he did have a few physical delays, his teeth coming in slower was one of them, as he had only one tooth most of his time as a bald one-year-old baby. Once he turned two though, he started to grow hair, and judging by some of the headaches he had been starting to witness as of late, it wouldn't be long before he started getting more teeth, though while it might not be pleasant, he'd take Zack's advice and eat those, over biting on other kids' toys at the park, like that Gabriel kid did, getting Tommy framed that one time for wrecking the Mcnulty boy's ball, which, to this day, he liked those kids even less now since that happened, along with how they treated everybody at Timmy's last birthday party, excluding the girls because they had coodies, and then Chuckie, because of turning into a monster like the girls. No matter, they went on to finish their supper in silence, drinking the water from their sippy cups, as the final round on Super Stumpers concluded, and the lady contestant playing, won.

"Congratulations Rita Loud, you won the match, for another high score in Super Stumper's history." Alan Trebek claimed.

While they wouldn't meet the Louds for another year or two, the mom was the contestant on the show.

"Oh wow how wonderful!" Rita exclaimed.

"So what will it be? The dining set? Stewed proons? Bug zapper?" Alan asked.

"Well, with a husband and eleven children, our dining stuff tends to need replacing every few years." Rita said.

"Then the dining set it is." Alan said, handing her a large box.

"Well that's all of the time we have for tonight. Tune in tomorrow, for another mind expanding edition of, Super Stumpers!" Alan said, waving goodbye to the camera, as the closing credits started to roll past on the screen.

Soon, after the credits ended, the Heavenly Diaper commercial came on that Phil and Lil starred in.

"Wait a minute Tommy, isn't that Phil and Lil?" Zack said, pointing to them on the screen at the end of the commercial.

"Yep it is! They starred in a mercial for diapies a long time ago." Tommy said.

"Oh wow I see. I wonder what that was like." Zack said.

Tommy didn't respond, figuring it might be better if Phil and Lil told him that story sometime. Soon, their plates were empty, as was Celeste's, as she came over and started wiping up what spilled with a rag, and cleaning up their dishes.

"So, while there's a commercial, would you boys like to come help get your hot milk ready?" Celeste asked.

Again, something else that confused Tommy, as while he had hot milk every night, helping prepare it was something new to him. Curious, he and Zack headed into the kitchen, where Celeste tossed the dishes into the sink, pulled out two baby bottles from the cabinet, some milk from the refridgerator, and then, something else that Tommy didn't recognize. First, she poured the milk into the bottles, and then, she poured the unfamiliar stuff that while stirring up Tommy's bottle with a spoon, he noticed the milk inside starting to turn brown.

"What's going on Zack? Why is my milk brown?" Tommy asked.

"Don't you know? That's chocolate milk! My aunty mixes in ovaltine with the milk to make it good and chocolatie." Zack explained.

"Oh yeah, I've had chocolate milk before, well, sort of." Tommy said.

"What do you mean?" Zack asked.

"Well one time when my daddy gave me, Chuckie, Phil, Lil and Angelica these really neat helmets to wear and he and everybody's daddies were watching football on TV, my grandpa gave us bottles to drink, and he gave me some chocolate milk. Only, Angelica wanted it." Tommy explained.

"Typical." Zack groaned while hearing the story, crossing his arms, thinking this event couldn't have gone well if she was involved, as while he had only known the gang for not very long, he knew that blond with the pigtails to be nothing but trouble.

"What happened?" Zack asked.

"Well, we tried to keep my bottle away from Angelica, cuz she wanted my milk, but in the end, while she didn't get no chocolate milk cuz the bottle was empty by the time she got it, none of us got any neither. The living room was a mess, and our mommies were mad." Tommy said.

"I take it you haven't had chocolate milk since." Zack replied.

Tommy nodded yes.

"Well no worries, Angelica's not here, so I think you'll be able to enjoy your chocolate milk more this time." Zack said.

Tommy smiled at his comment, just as Celeste came over and picked up Zack, overhearing his babbles to Tommy, and carried him over to the counter, where the spoon sat inside his bottle.

"Wanna help me stir?" Celeste asked her nephew.

He smiled, grabbed the spoon, and started stirring it around, as Celeste held him up to the counter so he could reach it. Once it was done, she put him back down on the floor, put the bottles in the microwave, and at that moment as she was starting up the microwave to heat them up, the boys heard the all-too familiar roar of Reptar coming from the TV in the living room, as they ran back in there to catch the movie. They sat down on the floor, their eyes glued to the TV, as Reptar came charging down the streets of Tokyo, and a few minutes later, the evil scientist from the Runaway Reptar movie appeared in a dark laboratory from inside a boxcar, stirring something in a test tube.

"Soon, my experiment will be complete! No longer am I making Reptar robots. Rather, I'm making a female Reptar, which will allow the production of dinosaurs to once again, head on, full force, and soon, we'll get our revenge on becoming extinct to begin with, as we wipe out the entire human population, and get our revenge, taking over the world, once and for all! Ha ha ha ha ha!" The scientist cackled.

Then, the footage flipped to another building, where the professor and his crew were also working on a project.

"It seems, that Reptar has a family, and his family, drove a train." The professor explained to his crew, as he looked through a crystal ball at what appeared to be the Dinosaur Train characters before him.

"That does look like Reptar." The female assistant commented, pointing at Buddy, who was the same species of dinosaur as Reptar.

"We do believe that this particular dinosaur might be Reptar's relative, and might be able to help us, finally send Reptar back to his own time, once and for all, and we must hurry, before that evil project of regeneration is complete." The professor said to his crew members wearing the yellow suits.

"Yeah!" His male assistant said, agreeing with him.

Just then, Celeste came in with their bottles of hot chocolate milk, complete with milk and Ovaltine, and handed them to Tommy and Zack, who drank their bottles with no hesitation. Tommy liked the taste of the warm chocolate milk, and in fact, found he liked it more than what he had been drinking over the last two years. He finished his bottle and continued to watch the Reptar movie intently, not wanting to miss a thing, as the scientist completed his project, a female Reptar, who was named Reptara, who looked like Reptar, only she had dark purple skin, light pink scales, and a blue tongue. Meanwhile, Celeste sat on the sofa to watch the movie too, and listen to it as best as she could, even though there was no audio description, as Zack climbed into her lap with his bottle, curled up, and drank his hot milk, eventually, falling asleep, way before the movie was over.

However, Tommy was too engrossed in the movie to notice, that is, until what felt like another commercial break came on, and after seeing the same ads shown for what felt like the bazillionth time, he decided to pass the time during this commercial break by talking to Zack. Noticing he was no longer on the floor next to him, he tossed down his bottle, which he had long since finished, and glanced over at the couch, where Zack was curled up, asleep in his aunty's lap, his now empty bottle, lying on its side on the couch cushion next to them. This really took Tommy by surprise, as he couldn't remember the last time he fell asleep in his mommy or daddy's arms, heck, even Dil didn't usually fall asleep until he was tucked into his crib at night. While he too, was starting to grow sleepy, he knew if he fell asleep before the end of the movie, nobody would know what happened, since it was highly unlikely that Phil, Lil, Chuckie, or even Kimi got to stay up to watch the movie, and while they had recently made a new friend at the park named Jesse, he wasn't sure how thingds ran in his household either, thus, it was up to him to stay up and watch the rest of the movie so he could tell Zack and the others what happened the following day.

So that's exactly what he did, as Reptar won Reptara's heart, and together, they caused the evil scientist's plan to backfire, getting him sent to Jail, and Reptara disappeared to America to become a heroin, while Reptar continued to take care of business in Japan, as he wasn't sure if he should remain with the girl reporter and the princess, or fall for his own kind, even though she was created in a science lab, rather than by mother nature.

No matter, he watched the rest of the movie, and at a later commercial break, while he figured Zack didn't mind sleeping in his clothes, same with his aunt, as neither one of them were dressed in pajamas, Tommy wanted to sleep in his Reptar pajamas he brought with him to the sleepover, and was really looking forward to sleeping in Zack's Reptar racecar bed. So he ran to Zack's room, undid the zipper on his overnight bag, where he pulled out the white footsy pajamas with Reptar on them, carried them back to the living room, and during the climax of the movie, he changed into his pajamas, leaving his blue t-shirt and blue shorts scattered on the floor. He was about to look for the TV clicker on the coffee table and turn off the TV as soon as the movie ended, when an announcement caught his ears.

"Stay tuned for Nigel Thornberry's Animal World, coming up next, right here, on KLPO." An announcer said.

This sparked Tommy's attention.

" _Nigel Strawberry? Gosh! I haven't seen Nigel Strawberry since the Lipchitz cruise!_ " Tommy thought to himself, as the commercial break ran, followed by the start of Nigel's show.

Tommy sat back, completely forgetting about going off to bed, as getting to see both of his heroes in one night, one after the other, was a rarety for him.

"Hello faitful viewers. I'm Nigel Thornberry. Today, coming to you, from Uganda's Impenetrable Forest, we will be taking a look at that very rare bird, the great crested grebe." Nigel explained to the audience on the television, with images of the forest behind him.

Tommy continued to watch the show intently, as Nigel had his adventure in the forest, and showing off the bird. At one point in the episode, Tommy was fascinated by how the mother carried her babies on her back.

"Until the baby bird is old enough to swim, the mother bird carries her baby on her back." Nigel explained, as footage of the mother bird swimming with her babies on her back was shown.

Before Tommy knew it, the show was nearly at an end.

"Thank you for watching Nigel Thornberry's Animal World." Nigel said at the end, as his picture faded away, and credits rolled, showing pictures of the landscape of the surrounding area.

Shortly after the show ended, the news came on, much to the two-year-old's dismay, so Tommy, very sleepy now, got up from the floor and looked around for the TV remote. He found it on the coffee table, found the power button, switched off the TV, and glancing over at the sleeping duo of Zack and his aunt on the couch, the overly exhausted two-year-old collapsed to the living room carpet, and passed out.

The next morning, Tommy awoke on the living room carpet to the smell of bacon coming from the kitchen. Sitting up, he glanced around and noticed that Celeste and Zack were no longer on the couch. Curious, he stood up and walked into the kitchen, where Celeste was fixing breakfast, some bacon was heating up in the microwave, and Zack was sitting in his booster seat at the table, sipping on another bottle, this being, his morning bottle of hot chocolate milk.

"Morning Zack." Tommy greeted, heading over to the table where he was sitting, noticing his diaper was sagging something awful as he walked, as it hadn't been changed since before he left for the sleepover.

"Morning Tommy." Zack said upon removing the bottle from his mouth.

Tommy found the seat across from Zack at the table and climbed into the booster seat. Then, looking for the belt to strap him in, he attempted to buckle it without much success. Noticing the extra noises coming from the table, Celeste stopped pouring Zack's bowl of Reptar cereal, and went over to the table to find that Tommy was awake.

"It sounds like somebody's awake! Did you sleep well Tommy?" Celeste asked, coming over to where he was attempting to strap himself into his booster seat without much luck.

However, a quick wiff of the air told her differently.

"I see you're having trouble with that strap. Here, let me help you, but first, I think we need to take care of something." Celeste said, scooping Tommy out of the chair and carrying him in the direction of Zack's room, where she lay him down on the changing table.

She then went over to his overnight bag, where she pulled out a fresh diaper, the baby powder his mom had sent, and his clothes for the next day.

"Now hold still Tommy." Celeste said, taking off his Reptar pajamas, where some poop had leaked out of his diapers into the pajamas.

She then got him all cleaned up, and Tommy, being a good guest, was well behaved, as she changed him into a fresh diaper, and got him dressed for the day.

"Now, how about some hot milk and Reptar cereal." Celeste said, picking up the freshly clothed Tommy, who giggled and smiled at this idea.

He hoped she'd put the Ovaltine in it again, as he really liked that, and, he was very happy that like him, Zack enjoyed Reptar cereal for breakfast. Soon, Tommy was back at the breakfast table, a bowl of Reptar cereal, a bottle of hot chocolate milk, and some strips of bacon on a plate with Reptar's picture on it were before him. Tommy wasn't interested in the bacon, but he did eat every last bite of his Reptar cereal, and drank all of his milk, while Zack ate everything, the bacon included.

"Do you want your bacon Tommy?" Zack asked.

Tommy shook his head no, as he still had a mouth full of Reptar cereal at the time.

"Mind if I have it?" Zack asked.

Again, Tommy shook his head no, so Zack reached across the short table, where he grabbed at Tommy's bacon, and had it. Once he was finished, the conversation continued, as Tommy finished up his hot milk.

"So, guess I was more tired than I thought. What happened to Reptar?" Zack asked.

"Well, he gotted Reptara, and they became good friends. And then, they beat the evil scientist, but they didn't put his plan into action." Tommy said.

"They didn't?" Zack asked.

"Nope, Reptara decided she'd rather be a hero like Reptar, so they went off to different parts of the world to do good things, hoping to cross paths again someday, as Reptar continued to look for his family, while doing good." Tommy explained.

"Wow that's great! I see you never went off to bed in my room, deciding to sleep on the living room floor." Zack commented.

"Yep, cuz you were right about something else. Not having a bedtime is kind of neat, specially when you get to see Nigel Strawberry after Reptar." Tommy said.

"Huh? What are you talking about Tommy? Who's Nigel Strawberry?" Zack asked, raising an eyebrow in confusion.

Tommy was shocked. While Zack had heard of Reptar, he had never heard of Nigel Strawberry.

"You've never heard of Nigel Strawberry?" Tommy asked.

Zack shook his head no.

"Oh my gosh! Nigel Strawberry is the bestest hero ever! He goes on all sorts of aventures, in the drain forest, the jumble, and teachers peoples about all kinds of aminals. I even got to meet him once, and, with Peter and my daddy's help, he saved my life!" Tommy added.

"Come again?" Zack asked, not believing Tommy at this point.

"It's true. It happened before I gotted that Gray Plague. We were spose to go on the Lipschitz Cruise, but my daddy wanted to take us on a small boat instead. We gotted ship wrecked, and ended up on the same island as Nigel Strawberry. Me and my friends, Chuckie, Kimi, Phil, Lil, Susie, and Dil all went in search for Nigel Strawberry, only when we founded him, he gotted hit on the head with a coconut, and turndid into a baby, acting very strange. I wasn't so sure about him at this point, specially when we got stuck in this scrubmarine type thing under water, until my daddy and Peter rescued us, and Nigel turned out okay. He even thanked me for my help, which made me very happy. We all then went on the Lipschitz cruise together, and it was the bestest vacation ever!" Tommy exclaimed, finishing his bottle of milk.

"Sounds like fun! But, what does Nigel Strawberry look like?" Zack asked.

"I've gots pictures back at my house, I'll show them to you when we head over there later." Tommy said.

Soon after everybody finished breakfast, Zack and Celeste got ready to go, and they made sure everything was back in Tommy's overnight bag. Shortly after, they left Zack's apartment, and got into Celeste's driverless van, as they headed in the direction of Tommy and Dil's house. As usual, Zack had himself another nap, seeing that the car made him sleepy, but Tommy on-the-other-hand was thinking. For starters, he thought about last night was the first time he had seen Nigel Strawberry on TV since the cruise. He also thought about the talk Zack had with him about how he was getting older, and that he couldn't let his parents baby him forever if he was going to grow up. It also hit him that because of not being put to bed early, he not only saw the Reptar movie, but Nigel's show, and got curious as to what other fun things he could do late at night, if he didn't go to bed quite so early. It was then that he decided, he'd sell this idea on his friends, and get them to do it too. Who knows, maybe Nigel's show came on every night, and they could all see him again, as he doubted that Chuckie, Kimi, Phil and Lil had seen him since the cruise neither.

"Destination complete." The GPS audible voice said, as Tommy looked out the window to see he was once again, in his parents driveway, back at his house.

"We're here kids, time for another day of playing while Aunty Celeste heads off to work." Celeste said, as Didi came out the front door and up to the van, where she opened the door on the driver's side, where Tommy was sitting.

"Hello sweetie, did you have fun?" Didi said with a smile, giving Tommy a kiss on the forehead, as she unstrapped him from his car seat, and saw to removing it from Celeste's van, and placing it back into her own car, while Tommy ran into the yard, and started chasing a butterfly that was flying around.

"They had a great time Didi." Celeste said, getting out of her side of the car and coming around, to hand Didi Tommy's overnight bag, and getting Zack unstrapped from his car seat, handing him and his diaper bag over to Didi.

Shortly after, Didi, Tommy, and Zack headed into the house, where Chuckie, Kimi, Phil, Lil, Jesse, and Dil were already playing together in the playpen, and Celeste headed off to work, and soon, another new day at Tommy's house would begin.

And this, ends chapter 2. So, what will happen next? Find out, come the next chapter!

Author's Note: Several Rugrats episodes were referenced in that chapter, amongst them were Game Show Didi, Baby Commercial, Aunt Miriam, Grandpa's Date, and Touchdown Tommy. I also made a reference to The Rugrats Movie and Rugrats go Wild, and did you guys notice a reference to an episode of The Wild Thornberrys too? Well, there was a reference to the episode, Valley Girls, as the episode of Nigel's show that Tommy watched, was the episode he was shooting in that particular episode. And it's quite likely, that several episodes of Wild Thornberrys will be made reference to in future chapters as well. Hope you enjoyed it, and, be looking for mmore chapters, coming soon!


	3. Selling the Idea

Author's Note: I'm terribly sorry for taking so long to get back to this story. For those of you who don't know, in my personal life, I'm in the middle of a family crisis. No, sadly, it's not as simple as my brother taking my dad's Scorpio madalian and our dog eating it, thinking it was a dog treat, but boy, as upsetting as that would be if that really happened in my family, which is impossible, because our dog died four years ago and my dad doesn't own such a piece of jewlry, I almost wish such a crisis were the case. Sadly though, it's much more serious than that, and anybody who I've spoken with privately, knows what's going on. No matter, I'll stop rambling, and bring you all the next chapter of this story now. Hope you enjoy.

Chapter 3, Selling the Idea

Didi placed Tommy and Zack down into the playpen where Dil, Phil and Lil, Kimi and Chuckie, and Jesse were all waiting for them.

"Look who's here. Now you all play nicely, and I'll be back to get you later for lunch." Didi said with a smile, kissing the top of Tommy's head before heading off into the kitchen.

Once she was gone, Tommy and Zack turned their attention to their friends.

"So how was your firstest sleepover at Zack's?" Phil asked.

"It was great! We played blocks, and I got to see Zack's partment! He's gots a really neat bed that looks like Reptar!" Tommy explained excitedly.

"Wow neat!" Phil and Lil exclaimed in unison.

"We even got to eat in Zack's living room and watch the made for TV Reptar movie, and drink hot chocolate milk!" Tommy added.

"Yep, and Tommy toldid me about the time Angelica ruined chocolate milk for you guys while your daddies were watching football, not to worry, there was no Angelica at my sleepover, thus, getting to drink our bottles in peace, right Tommy?" Zack asked.

Tommy nodded yes before continuing to tell about his sleepover at Zack's.

"We also ated Reptar cereal for breakfast, and get this you guys. At Zack's place, you get to go to bed whenever you want!" Tommy said.

"Nuh uh Tommy, I'm pretty sure you're making this part up." Chuckie said.

"No Chuckie it's true. My aunty don't make me go to bed. In fact, yesterday night, I fell asleep in my aunty's lap during the movie, and Tommy filled me in on what I missed this morning at breakfast." Zack replied.

Chuckie gasp in disbelief.

"No bedtime? That sounds like fun!" Kimi exclaimed.

"Well, why wouldn't it be? I mean, think about it you guys. Sure we get to play in the bathtub, have a story read to us, and sometimes have our mommy or daddy sing to us and rock us in the rocking chair, but don't you sometimes find we gotta go to bed before we're ready?" Tommy asks the gang, pacing back and force across the playpen.

"Like when we gotta come in from playing in the mud." Phil added.

"Or stop watching our favoritest Reptar video." Lil added.

"And pick up our toys!" Kimi added.

"Exactly. I mean, growed ups go to bed whenever they want, and most of us, we're already two, and Chuckie's three! If we're gonna be growed ups, we can't let mommy and daddy push us around forever. Besides, not only did I get to see the Reptar movie yesterday night, but after it was over, I saw Nigel Strawberry on TV too!" Tommy exclaimed.

"Who's Nigel Strawberry again? You said you were gonna show me a picture of what he looked like." Zack said.

"Oh yeah, I forgot! Wait right here you guys." Tommy said, fetching his screwdriver out of his shorts pocket, unlatching the playpen, and heading into the living room, where he looks around at the bookshelf for the photo album.

Then, he spots it on the far end of the bottom shelf. A dark purple large photo album, which he pulls out on to the floor, and starts flipping through the pictures, until he finds the one he wants. He sees that it contains pictures of every trip he and his family has ever taken. Then, he thought that maybe his newest friends to the group might like to see some of the pictures, including Dil and Kimi, who either weren't born or present for some of their trips. Realizing this fact, he closes the book, and drags it across the living room carpet back over to the playpen, where he then latches it shut, and all of the babies sit on the floor of the playpen, with the photo album in the middle.

"Wow! What a neat book Tommy." Jesse commented.

"Thanks! It's a picture book of all of the vacations I've ever taked since my firstest birpday. See?" Tommy explained, opening up to the first page of the photo album, where it showed a picture of one-year-old him and three-year-old Angelica, eating ice cream at the Clam Canyon beach.

"This was when me and Angelica were spose to go to the Graham Canyon, but as you can see, we ended up at the Clam Canyon instead." Tommy explained, showing everybody the picture.

"Clam Canyon, sounds like fun!Minus Yucky of course." Dil commented, as Tommy turned to another page in the photo album.

"And here's when me and Angelica went to that family union. See? Those are my cousins, Tony, Tammi Fay, and Timmy Ray." Tommy said, pointing to the different babies in the picture, who were indeed his cousins.

"Who's that big kid?" Zack asked, pointing to Emmit in the picture.

"Oh, that's Emmit. I guess my last name always made him hungry, cuz whenever we mentioned our last name of Pickles, he'd always say he was hungry." Tommy remarked.

"What's that daddy's eating?" Dil asked, pointing to Stu, who was also in the picture, eating sunflower seeds.

"Those are sunflower seeds Dilly. Daddy loves them!" Tommy commented.

"Cool!" Dil cried.

"Yep, and it's thanks to those we founded our mommies and daddies, and got to go home with our parents. Proving Angelica wrong." Tommy said.

"Oh boy, do I even wanna hear this story?" Zack muttered.

"Well, Angelica toldid me that a family union is when you go home with another family than your own, but at least she was only making it up as usual." Tommy said.

"Yeah, thank goodness. Had I been there, I would have punched her in the face for starting up such bologna." Zack commented, as Tommy turned to another page in the photo album.

On this page showed a picture of the babies on their trip to Los Vegas, at Circus Gigantica with all of the clowns.

"And here's when we went to Slots Vegas and saved the kitties. Member that Chuckie?" Tommy asked.

"Uh, yeah, but can we please turn to something that don't gots as many clowns in it please?" Chuckie asked, reaching out and turning the pages of the photo album.

The first page he turned to was taken at Boris and Minca's cabin in the woods.

"Uh, that was taken when me and Tommy went to the old country. Let's look at something else. I don't like membering almost getting squished by elephants." Chuckie said, turning to another page in the photo album.

The page he turned to was taken at Euroreptar Land in Paris, and in the picture, the babies are riding Ooey Gooey World.

"This is when we were all in Paris!" Kimi cried, recognizing the picture.

"Yep, we were on that gooey ride where we escaped to go find my princess mommy." Chuckie added.

"Yep." Tommy added.

"Wow Chuckie, a princess mom, sounds nice." Zack said.

"Yeah, but while I didn't get a princess for a new mommy, I do think the new mommy I've gots is nice." Chuckie said with a smile, as Tommy turned to another new page in the book.

On this page, the gang is on a train.

"Wow! You guys road on a train? Cool!" Zack cried.

"Yep." Tommy replied.

"Can we turn to something else now? I losted Wawa on that train, and don't really like looking at that picture." Chuckie said, noticing how he looked kind of sad in the picture, as it was taken while Wawa was still missing.

"Yeah, but member, we founded Wawa and the mistery was solved." Tommy said.

"That's true, at least we had a good trip back home where nothing bad happened." Chuckie said, reaching in and turning to another page in the book.

On this page, the babies are having fun at Club Fred.

"And this is when we went to Club Fred, and we had to find the treasure for our mommies and daddies." Tommy explained, as they all stared at a picture of everybody sitting together in the new upgraded sweet, Angelica, carrying a tray of ice tea she's about to give to her parents, as punishment for sneaking off and charging a huge room service bill, as well as interrupting her mommy's mud bath.

"What's Angelica doing?" Jesse asked.

"Probably sneaking some drink for herself." Zack replied.

"Nope, she was punished for being naughty, so she was taking drinks to her mommy and daddy in that picture." Tommy said, turning to another page in the photo album.

Zack was not the least surprised by this at all, but he was sorry he missed out on getting to find the treasure. Just then, Tommy reached the last page of the book, which had a picture of the gang, including the Thornberrys taken together on the Lipschitz Cruise.

"And here we are on the Lipschitz Cruise, and there's Nigel Strawberry." Tommy said, pointing to Nigel in the picture.

"Wow! He's gots lots of red hair." Zack commented.

"Yep, and he's really smart too." Tommy said, closing the photo album and seeing to scooting it back over to the bookshelf, only he was having too much trouble lifting it up to put it back on to the shelf.

"Uh, you guys, I could use some help." Tommy said.

"I'll help." Chuckie said, running out of the playpen and catching up to Tommy, where he grabbed one side of the book while Tommy grabbed the other.

"Okay Chuckie, on three. One, seventy, eleventy, uh, three!" Tommy cried, as they attempted to put the photo album back on to the bookshelf.

Unfortunately, Chuckie bumped into the shelf, causing the bottom row of books, as well as the next row of books to come flying off on to the floor, making a loud crash. Tommy and Chuckie threw the photo album down and ran in a screaming panic back to the playpen, managing to avoid any of the books from hitting them on the head. No sooner did Tommy latch the playpen shut, when Didi walked into the room to discover the mess.

"Oh my goodness! What happened in here?" Didi asked, looking around at the mess of books on the floor.

"Don't know Deed." Stu called from the kitchen.

Didi let out a reluctant sigh as she cleaned up the mess, putting all of the books back on to the shelves. Once she was gone, the babies continued their conversation.

"So Nigel Strawberry is on TV?" Jesse asked.

"Yep, he goes on all kinds of aventures. Everywhere from the jumble, to the drain forest." Tommy explained.

"And all we gotta do is stay up past our bedtime to see him?" Lil asked.

"Well, yeah! We haven't seen him since the Lipschitz Cruise, and now, I know why. So who's with me?" Tommy asked.

"Tommy, if this is gonna be like that time you tried to get us all nakie, or that time you gotted Angelica to convince you to wreck everything in the house to get Herman back…" Chuckie started to say, walking up to Tommy, when Tommy cut him off.

"His name's Henry!" Tommy corrected him in an angry tone of voice.

"Henry?" Dil, Phil, Lil, Zack, Kimi, and Jesse all asked with raised eyebrows, not having a clue as to who Tommy and Chuckie were talking about, because none of them were there during the events of that particular episode.

"Uh, I mean, to get Henry back, sorry Tommy, but I'm not doing it." Chuckie concluded.

"Why not Chuckie? I think it sounds like fun! Getting to play all night sounds really neat!" Kimi cried.

"Cuz it's wrong Kimi, it's really really wrong." Chuckie said.

"I agree with Chuckie, I like going night night at night." Dil added.

"That's cuz you're still a baby-baby." Jesse scoffed.

"Am not." Dil snapped, crossing his arms and crawling across the floor of the playpen.

"Dilly's right, he is almost a big baby, but the rest of us, we're big-big-babies, and will soon be growed ups. If we're gonna be growed ups, then we've gots to do this." Tommy protested.

Chuckie let out a reluctant sigh, as all of the babies except for Dil crowded around Tommy, and everybody placed their hands on top of one another, making it official.

"As long as Chuckie don't start talking backwards again upon seeing Nigel Strawberry, I'm all for everything." Phil said.

"I never talked backwards, but I did end up all nakie though when we were on that island. Gosh, I hope that don't happen again, that part was no fun." Chuckie said.

"I doubt if that will happen Chuckie. I mean, you'll just be at home watching this guy on TV, not on the island with him like you were in those pictures." Zack commented.

"Yeah yeah you're right." Chuckie said.

Little did any of the toddlers notice the aroma of fried bologna sandwiches coming from the kitchen, until Lil took a wiff.

"Mmmm, what's that smell?" Lil asked.

Just then, before anybody could respond, Didi came into the living room.

"It's time for lunch kids." Didi said, getting everybody out of the playpen and getting them situated at the kitchen table with their lunches in front of them.

On each of the toddlers' plates, were some veggy chips, and a fried bologna sandwhich, but the sandwhiches were cut out to look like Reptar, while Dil's bread was cut in the shape of Goober.

"Wow! Reptar and Goober sandwiches!" Dil cried.

"Cool!" All of the toddlers cried in unison, as everybody dug into their lunch.

Just then, Didi came around and placed sippy cups of red juice above each toddler's plate.

"There you go kids, red juice for everyone." Didi said with a smile, placing the sippy cups down before returning to the kitchen counter to finish fixing lunch for her and Stu.

Just then, Tommy took a sip of his juice, ate one more chip off of his plate, and another bite of his sandwich. While eating though, he couldn't help but realize that nobody was spose to be sleeping over at his house that night, thus, he wouldn't be there to help make sure everybody stayed awake to see Nigel Strawberry. Realizing they'd all need their nap, and for a little bit of practice at challenging the limits of mommies and daddies, Tommy put on his, a baby's gotta do what a baby's gotta do face, the same look he gave Chuckie in the Club Fred episode, before striking up an idea.

"Okay you guys, just do what I do." Tommy instructed, as he dropped the sandwich he was eating on to his plate, and slid down in his chair, trying to lie down in the chair, with his feet dangling off on to the floor.

The other toddlers all did the same, and once Tommy looked around beneath the table and saw that everybody was in position, they all started kicking their feet and crying. This immediately got the adult's attention, as Stu and Didi turned around to see what was going on.

"What's wrong kids, don't you want to eat your lunch?" Didi asked.

"Uh huh?" Kimi said in between sobs.

"Then sit up and eat." Didi said, just as the phone rang.

She went off to answer the phone, just as all of the babies stopped crying. Tommy got off of his chair and down on the floor beneath the table, where soon after, the other toddlers joined him.

"Come on you guys, now's our chance. Let's finish our lunch in the living room." Tommy whispered to the others.

"But Tommy, we're not allowed to eat in there." Chuckie said.

"Good going Tommy, I applaud your grateness." Zack said, clapping his hands.

The three-year-old redhead turned to Zack and rolled his eyes. Soon after, they reached up to the table, grabbed their plates where they stacked their sippy cups on top, and started walking slowly and quietly into the living room. Unfortunately, being toddlers, they made a mess of chips on the way there, which Phil and Lil started eating off of the floor. Luckily at this point, Didi was still on the phone, and Stu had left the room to use the bathroom, so the toddlers weren't spotted, making it into the living room by the couch, with their sippy cups of juice and most of their sandwiches, even if by this point, they were open face sandwiches, because the top piece of bread fell off on the way there, and Spike and Spiffi, who were napping prior, smelled the food and came out from their hiding places to have a snack.

"So now what Tommy?" Chuckie asked, sitting on the floor with his sippy cup, his back against the couch.

"Yeah what are we gonna watch while we finish?" Zack asked, taking another bite of his sandwich, which made it into the living room in one piece, as did his chips, because he was the only toddler to not spill anything on the way there.

Tommy went over to the shelf of DVD's, and pulled two Reptar DVD's out. One of them had Reptar and some aliens on the cover, while the other one had the Reptar robot helping Dectar destroy the city in Tokyo on it.

"Well, we could watch Reptar versus the Aliums, or we can watch Runaway Reptar, the same movie that me, Dilly, Chuckie, Phil and Lil all sawed at the parking lot movie." Tommy said, holding up the two DVD's.

"I wanna see the runaway Reptar one." Kimi said.

"Me too!" Jesse and Zack cried in unison.

"Okay." Tommy said, reaching up to the TV stand where the remote was lying, and turning on the TV.

He then pressed the button to open the drawer on the DVD player, where he put the disc in of Runaway Reptar, pushed it in, and the movie started playing. While the previews rolled running ads for other Reptar videos and DVD's people could buy, including a few that were now available on digital DVD and blueray combo packs, the toddlers all sat on the floor and enjoyed what remained of their lunches at this point, making a mess in the process unknown to them because they were too busy watching the TV.

"You're right Tommy, eating in the living room is so much more funner than eating in the kitchen." Phil said.

"And it's much more comfortable too." Lil added.

"I told ya." Tommy said, taking another sip of his juice, just as Didi walked in to see the mess.

"Oh my goodness! Look at this mess!" Didi cried, switching off the movie, which had just started at this point.

This caused all of the babies to start crying.

"Let me clean this up and then you can all watch the rest of your movie until it's nap time." Didi said.

She put the babies into the playpen for a few minutes, as she cleaned up the mess.

"You guys, stop!" Tommy cried, just as the babies all stopped.

"What's going on?" Kimi asked.

"Mommy said we all had to take a nappy, and if we're gonna be ready for tonight, maybe we'd better." Tommy said.

"But I thought we weren't spose to listen to mommy no more." Phil commented.

"No, but we start tonight. This is the lastest time we listen to mommy and daddy, got it you guys?" Tommy asked.

"Got it." All of the babies said, as everybody let out yawns, collapsed to the floor, and closed their eyes to go to sleep.

A little while later, Didi was finished with her cleaning, and was walking over to the playpen.

"Okay kids, you can watch the rest of your…" Didi started to say, when she looked over to see that all of the toddlers had passed out on the floor.

She went into the kitchen to put away the paper towels and cleaning solution she used to clean up the mess, then sat down at the table to quietly read a book while the toddlers napped.

The rest of the afternoon was more or less, uneventful as the toddlers awoke from their nap and played with toys, until Betty, Laura, Celeste, and Kira all arrived to pick up their kids.

"Time to go home kiddos." Betty said, scooping up Phil and Lil out of the playpen later that afternoon in each arm, and leaving Tommy and Dil's house.

"Come on Jesse, time to go." Laura said, as she scooped Jesse out of the playpen, and he then proceeded to drop to the floor and start kicking and screaming, not wanting to go home.

"Now now Jesse, calm down. If you don't, you can't come over tomorrow." Laura said.

But remembering what Tommy said earlier, he didn't want to leave. However, Laura, tired from being on her feet all day at work, picked up the screaming dark haired two-year-old boy, and carried him out to the car.

Everybody could still hear the toddler scream, and Laura screaming at him to sit back and stay still while she buckled him into his car seat, until she managed to get him strapped in, get into the car herself, and drive off. Shortly after, Kira came up to get Chuckie and Kimi out.

"Come on Chuckie and Kimi, we'd better be going too." Kira said with a smile.

Not wishing to cause another scene, Chuckie took his mommy's hand, and Kimi did the same with her other hand, not wishing to irritate her brother, or make their mommy mad.

And finally, Celeste came up to the playpen, where Zack was standing at the edge. He reached up to his aunty's hand and giggled. Recognizing it was him, she scooped him up and headed for the door.

"Thanks for watching Zack." Celeste said.

"No problem." Didi said, leading Celeste and Zack to the door.

Once the front door closed for the final time, and the sun started going down, it would soon be time for dinner, as well as time, to put operation, bedtime banishment, into action.

And this, ends chapter 3. So what will happen? Will the toddlers follow through? Find out, come the next chapter!

Author's Note: Obviously parts of this chapter were inspired by my nephew, in particular, the part where they all tried to lie down in their chairs at the kitchen table during lunch, and abandon their lunches and start crying in protest, and while I was going to originally just have Tommy turn to the page in the photo album where there were pictures taken of them all on the Lipschitz Cruise, which, in case you forgot, the Thornberrys and the Rugrats gang all went on the cruise together at the end of the Rugrats go Wild movie, I thought it might be nice to have them take a trip down memory lane, and let Zack, Jesse, Kimi, and Dil learn about some of the vacations they weren't present for originally. I also made a reference to Rebel without a Teddy Bear, my favorite lines from that episode in fact, and the way I tried to get Tommy to sell the idea of banishing the bedtime routine, I tried to have him sell the idea similarly to how he persuaded Phil and Lil to get naked along with him in the Naked Tommy episode. He talked about the cons of wearing clothes, so I had to think for a bit, and come up with some cons for them to realize were true when mommies and daddies make you go to bed before you're ready, which, I'm sure anybody reading this, can relate to very well, if not now as adults, for sure, at one time or another during childhood, no doubt. Also, episodes and movies referenced in this chapter were as followed. Graham Canyon, Family Reunion, Rebel without a Teddy Bear, Naked Tommy, Vacation, The Old Country, Runaway Reptar, Rugrats in Paris, Mermer on the Ornery Express, Club Fred, and Rugrats go Wild. Anyway, hope you all enjoyed the chapter, and be looking for more, hopefully very soon.


	4. Putting Operation, Bedtime Banishment, i

Chapter 4, Putting Operation, Bedtime Banishment, into Action

Soon, it was dark, and dinner had been served at the various homes of the Pickles, Devilles, Finsters, Barrows, and Wehrenbergs. Likewise, at each home minus the Wehrenbergs, as Celeste was watching a documentary on the making of cheese, while Zack drank his milk, passing out on a blanket on the living room floor afterwards, as soon as one of the parents mentioned it was time to go to bed, the toddlers in each home started crying and screaming, running through their houses, making their poor parents chase after them.

"Come on son, it's time for your story!" Dana called, as Jesse, still crying and screaming ran through the entire downstairs of their house.

Shortly after this wild chase of the fussy terrible two-year-old, he started to grow tired, passing out on the couch in the living room, trying to catch his breath. Noticing his daddy sitting very still on the couch, Jesse calmed down and climbed in his lap. Just then, Laura walked into the living room carrying his story book, taking aseat on the couch.

"So, are you ready for your bedtime book?" Laura asked.

Jesse was too tired from all of that running to try to rebel against his parents at this point. Feeling defeated, he shook his head yes, and his mother opened up the book for that night to the first page.

"This book is called, Green Eggs and Ham by Doctor suce." Laura said, as she started reading the story.

Roughly halfway through the story, Jesse had passed out on his father's lap, and oblivious to this, Laura finished reading the book to her passed out son and exhausted husband, who was about ready to pass out right then and there. Had he not suffered from back pain in the past, he might have let himself sleep in an uncomfortable sitting position on the couch, but instead, he gently picked up his sleeping son, and the couple carried their child upstairs, placed him down in bed, and headed off to bed themselves.

While Jesse might have given up way too easily, Phil and Lil, and even Chuckie and Kimi had a much longer history with Tommy, not to mention, they had met Nigel Thornberry before, so getting to see him on TV again actually excited them a bit, making them want to try to follow through with the plan. Lucky for Phil and Lil, after dinner, their father said the two words they dreaded hearing most.

"Okay you little rascals, it's bath time." Howard said, finishing up the last of the dinner dishes.

This sent Phil and Lil over the edge, as those twins who fancied mud and worms, did not fancy soap and water in the least. They started running through the house, screaming, just as Howard and Betty started chasing after them. Of course, being very strong and athletic, Phil and Lil ran to the end of the upstairs hallway, and before they could make their next move, Betty had them cornered, as she scooped up each squirming twin in each arm, and carried them to the bathroom, the twins continuing to scream all the way there.

Shortly afterwards, she had them in the bathtub, with some of their toys to play with, and was pouring the bubbles into the tub, when Phil and Lil proceeded to start splashing their mother.

"Now you pups no better than to start splashing." Betty said.

But Phil and Lil weren't paying attention. They continued to splash their mom, until she was so covered, she had to go dry off with a towel.

While her back was turned, the twins grabbed hands, climbed out of the bathtub, and started running through the upstairs hall, soaking the carpet with soap and water. At that moment, Howard came up the stairs to see what was going on, and nearly had a panic attack.

"Phil! Lil! No!" Howard cried, but he was too late.

The naked twins snuck past their father and escape down the stairs into the living room, while Howard confronted his wife, nearly in tears.

"What's going on here?" Betty asked.

"Our children just made a huge mess! That's what." Howard cried.

Betty and Howard got started cleaning up the mess, completely oblivious of their children down in the living room.

"We're almost home free Lillian, now all we gotta do is get warm." Phil said, pointing to a blue blanket that was draped over the back of the couch.

"Wait right here Phillip, I'll go get us a blankie." Lil said, climbing up on to the couch and grabbing the blanket down from the back.

Once she returned, Phil grabbed the blanket from his sister and started bundling up in it.

"Hey! Don't take all of the blankie for yourself Phillip." Lil scolded.

"I'll take as much blankie as I want, after all, it's mine!" Phil argued.

"Nuh uh, it's mine!" Lil argued back, pulling on one end of the blanket.

"Mine!" Phil argued, pulling on his end of the blanket.

"Mine!" Lil argued.

This continued to go on, until the blanket ripped in half, and Phil knocked into the TV stand, knocking the remote on to the floor behind the TV, causing it to disappear out of sight.

"Well if we keep arguing like this, we're never gonna see Nigel Strawberry. Now, where's that clicker." Phil said, turning around, his half of the torn up blanket still in his hands, only to not see the remote anywhere.

He turned back around to his sister, angrily glaring at her.

"You hid the clicker didn't you Lillian." Phil argued.

"I did not Phillip, you hid the clicker." Lil argued.

"Did not!" Phil argued back.

"Did too!" Lil argued.

"Did not!" Phil argued.

The two twins continued to argue, until they were too out of breath to say another word.

"You know Lillian, maybe Chuckie and Dil were right, maybe skipping night night time isn't such a good idea after all." Phil said in between gasps of air, as he curled up on one side of the living room beneath his piece of ripped up blanket.

"Yeah." Lil said trying to catch her breath, as she lay on the opposite side of the room beneath her torn piece of blanket, trying to catch her breath.

Shortly after, the two naked twins between pieces of ripped up blanket closed their eyes and passed out on the living room floor. By this time, Howard and Betty finally finished cleaning up the carpet in the hall, leaving fans on to air it out, as they headed downstairs, looking for their kids. Exhausted, Howard collapsed on the stairs, while Betty peaked into the living room to see her twins asleep. Not wishing to disturb their rest, she took her phone out of her pocket, took a picture, then went back to the stairs, where she scooped up her sleeping husband, and the two of them, headed back up the stairs to bed.

While bathtime was a bust at the Devilles, that wasn't the case at the Finsters, mainly because Chuckie liked ending his day on a clean note, and Kimi found her daddy's puppet show with Mr. Soap and Mr. Water too entertaining to pass up. No matter, she already had her own plan to avoid going to sleep once their parents were out of sight.

"Goodnight Chuckie, goodnight Kimi, pleasant dreams." Chas said, blowing them a kiss at the door once he and Kira got Chuckie tucked into his big boy bed on one side of the room, and Kimi in Chuckie's old crib across the room, over near the closet.

Once Chas shut out the lights and closed the door, leaving nothing but the glow of Chuckie's Happy Hippo nightlight and Kimi's Dummi Bears nightlight illuminating the place, Kimi, wearing a pair of pink and white polkadotted footsy pajamas, climbed over the bars of her crib and snuck into the closet, where she closed the doors. Chuckie, dressed in the same blue pajamas he's seen wearing in Mr. Clean, tries to hide under the covers and fall asleep, but is rudely interrupted from his slumbers when he hears giggling coming from the closet.

"What's going on here?" Chuckie asked annoyed, as he pulls the blanket down and peers around the dimly lit room, trying to spot Kimi.

Just then, Kimi opens the closet doors and peaks her head out.

"Peak-a-boo Chuckie, I see you." Kimi says excitedly, peering over in the direction of Chuckie's bed.

Her three-year-old brother groans, as he hides beneath the covers again, not wishing to play a part in this whole, staying up all night thing.

"Leave me alone Kimi, and go back to bed." Chuckie snaps from beneath the covers.

"Now I'm in the closet again, and Tommy says we gotta stay up all night." Kimi says from behind the closet doors.

"Leave me alone!" Chuckie screams, but Kimi doesn't pay attention, as she continues to play Peak-a-boo with the folding closet doors.

She reopens the doors and peers out at her brother, who while he's mostly buried beneath his blanket, his red hair is sticking up from beneath the covers.

"Come on Chuckie, play with me! I still see you." Kimi said playfully.

"I don't want you to see me." Chuckie grumbled in frustration beneath the covers, not realizing that his hair was still sticking out.

"Come on Chuckie, Tommy said we gotta do this if we're gonna get all growed up." Kimi said, coming out of the closet.

"Well maybe I don't wanna grow up. I'm tired Kimi, now can we please go to bed now?" Chuckie groaned, pulling the covers down from his face.

"No! We're gonna play all night and watch Nigel Strawberry on TV if it's the last thing we do." Kimi said.

"I knew it, you're another Tommy." Chuckie said, reluctantly getting out of bed, letting out a sigh as he put on his glasses.

Of course, not quite meaning what Chuckie meant by the comment, Kimi took it literally.

"Wow! I'm Tommy? Yeah! I'll pretend to be Tommy! And you said something about one time him getting nakie. I wanna do that too! Maybe you could pretend to be Phil, and eat worms!" Kimi cried, attempting to take off her pajamas.

"Nuh uh no way am I gonna pretend to be Phil." Chuckie replied, running over to Kimi and grabbing at her hands before she could attempt to take off her pajamas.

"Why did you do that for?" Kimi asked.

"Cuz, we're not getting nakie, that's what. We're going back to bed." Chuckie protested, dragging his sister back over to her crib.

Kimi jerked away and ran for the door.

"Can't catch me." Kimi said with a giggle, as she reached up, opened the door, and ran down the hall.

"Wait for me!" Chuckie cried, running after her.

By this time, the house was dark, as Chas and Kira had long since gone off to bed, and Fifi and Pepper had curled up on two rugs down in the laundry room. The two toddlers ran through the darkened house, until they made it into the living room, where Kimi grabbed the TV clicker off of the living room coffee table.

"Come on Chuckie, let's see if Tommy is right, and if staying up late means getting to see Nigel Strawberry." Kimi said excitedly, turning on the TV, which was on some late night baseball game.

"Tommy's wrong, we shouldn't be doing this Kimi." Chuckie said, nearly out of breath, as he collapsed to a sitting position on the floor next to the couch.

Kimi turned to her brother.

"How can you say Tommy's wrong? I thought he was your bestest friend." Kimi asked.

"That don't mean nothing. Besides, I've knowed him much longer than you have, and knowing Tommy, Zack probably planted this idea into his head. Now come on Kimi, let's turn off the TV and head back to bed. I'm tired!" Chuckie cried, letting out a huge yawn.

"Not till we see Nigel Strawberry." Kimi protested.

Chuckie knew one thing was for sure. Kimi and Tommy were a lot alike, and he knew that if his sister was anything like his best friend, she wasn't going to give up until she was satisfied. Realizing this fact, the redhead sat quietly on the floor, as Kimi turned back to the TV, flipping through the channels until she hopefully found Nigel Thornberry. Unfortunately, unknown to either one of the toddlers, it was after eleven at night by this time, and Nigel Thornberrys Animal World had long since ended before the eleven o'clock news came on. By the time Kimi went through all of the stations, finally landing on a news program on one of the stations, she threw the remote down on the coffee table, feeling disappointed. She turned to her brother, who looked about ready to fall asleep.

"You were right Chuckie, Tommy was wrong. Come on, let's get some sleep." Kimi said with disappointment, as she climbed up on the couch, making herself comfortable on one end, resting her head against one of the pillows.

Chuckie followed after her, making himself comfortable at the opposite end of the couch, pulling a blanket down from the back, as the two toddlers, wrapped up in the blanket together, and drifted off to sleep.

However, while the bulk of the toddlers gave up and fell asleep, there was one toddler who never ended up going to sleep. Back at the Pickles house, after dinner was finished, Stu noticed that the babies had been watching a Reptar movie earlier, noticing the open DVD case on the floor, and the DVD player turned on in the living room. Realizing this fact, he turned Runaway Reptar back on for Tommy and Dil to finish watching after dinner, while Didi got their bottles of hot milk ready. However, not knowing that Tommy liked the Ovaltine in his milk, she fixed the bottles the way she had always fixed them for years, bringing them into Tommy and Dil. However, while usually it's Dil who gets cranky and fussy if he doesn't get his way, Stu and Didi were soon in for a surprise, when Dil took the bottle without hesitation, but Tommy, disappointed his milk was white and not brown, meaning it was lacking the Ovaltine, threw his bottle on the living room floor and started to cry.

"What's the matter Champ?" Stu asked, picking up his oldest son and trying to comfort him without much success.

Didi, being a stickler for Lipschitz, ran into the kitchen and came back with a book called, The Two-Year-Old Terrors. She started flipping through pages of the book, until she came to something she started reading out loud.

"Well according to Lipschitz, many two-year-olds will attempt to test the limits of their parents. They're also known to start outgrowing some routines from their earlier years. Maybe Tommy's finally ready to give up his bedtime bottle." Didi said.

Of course, overhearing this only caused Tommy to start crying louder, as he hadn't learned how to talk to grown ups yet, being able to tell them he wanted chocolate milk, not regular milk, and at that moment, he wasn't sure how to tell them what he wanted.

" _This would be so much easier if Zack were here._ " Tommy thought to himself, figuring he could borrow one of Zack's bottles to try to show his parents what he wanted.

By this point though, Stu and Didi were exhausted, and Dil had managed to fall asleep, despite all of the noise. Didi scooped up her youngest son in her arms and carried him up to bed, while Stu continued to struggle with Tommy, who squirmed out of his arms and started running through the house.

"Come on Tommy, stay still already, it's time to go to bed." Stu called, as Tommy ran through the entire downstairs, running in circles, hoping to make his daddy dizzy.

By this time, they were circling the entry hallway, as Stu started to grow dizzy, nearly collapsing to the floor and passing out.

"One Mississippi, two Mississippi, three Mississippi, four." Stu started muttering in his sleep on the carpet of the entry hall, just as Didi came back downstairs after getting Dil to bed.

Thinking he had started sleep walking, as she could tell he was exhausted and nearly ready to pass out when she took Dil upstairs, she approached her husband, not noticing that Tommy had disappeared at this point. Didi knelt down to the floor and started shaking Stu awake.

"Stu?" Didi asked.

"Leave me alone Ramona I'm not up for a cooking show tonight." Stu muttered.

"Well come on then, I'd better get you upstairs and lock the door so you can't sleep walk again." Didi said, dragging her husband off of the floor as he became alert.

"Oh, uh, hi." Stu said, getting to his feet and following his wife up the stairs.

"Oh Stu." Didi said with a sigh, as they reached their bedroom, where they disappeared inside, and Didi closed the door after them, locking it behind her.

Unknown to either of them, Tommy had ran off to the corner of the downstairs hall near the downstairs bathroom, and hid behind the plant in the corner. Once he noticed the coast was clear, he snuck out into the deserted downstairs, pleased he had pulled off operation, bedtime banishment, without any issues.

" _Well, maybe I don't gots no milk with chocolate, or whatever that stuff is called that Zack said his aunty puts into it to make it taste like that, but at least I still gots Nigel Strawberry._ " Tommy thought to himself, as he headed back into the living room, where he turned off the DVD, uninterested in watching anymore of the Reptar movie, and started flipping through the channels until he found Nigel Thornberry.

Little did he know that the show was airing as he was flipping through channels, until he finally came upon it. On the TV, Nigel was high up in a tree, standing on some rope, showing a spider to the audience.

"And while it's called the bird-eating spider, this particular creature of Manaus Brazil's rainforest rarely eats birds. Its diet mostly consists of large mice, and caterpillars." Nigel explained to the viewers, as footage of the spiders catching mice, rats, and another eating a caterpillar were shown.

After some footage of the rainforest was shown, it cut back to another view of Nigel, who was coming on the screen to close out the episode.

"And that concludes this week's episode, from the canapy of the Manaus Brazil rainforest, as we took a look at the rare bird-eating spider. Be sure to join me next time, for another edition, of Nigel Thornberry's Animal World." Nigel signed off, as the credits started to roll on the screen.

"What? That's it?" Tommy cried, disappointed that by the time he found the channel where Nigel was airing, he had missed most of the episode.

Once the news started, he turned off the TV and noticed how dark and quiet the house was. He had been up at night before, but it was never anything he had really paid attention to, mainly because if he was ever up at night in the past, he was busy with something, plus, one or more of his friends were with him typically, causing the chatter of them talking to one another, to interrupt the silence of the night.

" _Hmmm, now what to do?_ " Tommy thought to himself, glancing around the living room.

While he had a lot of toys he could play with, as well as free range of the TV to watch another movie, none of that sounded all that appealing to him at the moment. Then, an idea came to him.

" _I know, I'll go upstairs and play trains!_ " Tommy thought, heading up the stairs and overhearing the snores of his parents coming from their bedroom, as he did his best to tip toe down the hallway, hoping to not wake anybody up.

He then opened the door to his and Dil's room, when he glanced over at Dil's crib, where just opening the door, awoke his little brother. Dil crawled over to the end and peered through the bars at his brother.

"Time to go night night Tommy." Dil said sleepily.

Tommy ran up to his brother's crib and approached the bars where Dil was peering out.

"No Dil, it's time to play trains. Here." Tommy said, fetching his screwdriver out of his pocket and handing it to Dil.

"Now, go over to the side and undo the latch, climb out and let's go." Tommy instructed.

"No!" Dil screamed, raising the plastic screwdriver high in the air and throwing it at Tommy's head.

Disappointed, not to mention, hurt by the bonk on his head by the screwdriver, Tommy picked it up off of the floor and placed it back in his pocket.

"Mind if I play trains? I can't sleep." Tommy said.

"I don't mind, just be quiet about it so I can go night night." Dil protested, as he crawled back over to his pillow, curled back up beneath his blanket and went back to sleep.

"Oh, okay." Tommy said with a frown, feeling a bit lonely, hoping he'd have somebody to play with.

He went over to where the roundhouse and box of train tracks and bucket of train cars had been stashed prior to when he left for his sleepover at Zack's. Tommy pulled the roundhouse down to the floor, got the top open on the box, and dumped all of the train track, bridges, and tunnels on to the floor, making a loud crash. This caused Dil to awaken with a start and begin crying at the top of his lungs. Tommy ran through the mess of track on the carpet over to his brother.

"Dil, it's okay, it was just me, you can calm down now." Tommy said.

Dil stopped crying and looked at his brother with disgust.

"Well okay, you promise to not make no more noise?" Dil asked sternly.

"I promise. Night night Dilly." Tommy said, blowing his brother a kiss.

Dil closed his eyes, and with those final words, Tommy sat down on the floor, and began quietly building some train tracks. In his imagination, it was nighttime in a deserted landscape, and Tommy, still two-years-old in his fantasy, but now dressed like a construction worker, complete with a hard hat on his head, began to work on the railroad, just like people did in the 1800's. All through the night, Tommy continued to build up his massive train layout, complete with tunnels, drawbridges, an extension bridge, and endless miles of track. Back in the real world, some of the track even stretched beneath both, his bed and Dil's crib, coming out on the opposite side, making tunnels. He got so carried away with building track and later, running his trains on it, that he didn't notice it was nearly daylight outside. Sometime later, the sun was coming into the sky, and as daylight streamed in through the bedroom window and Spike and Spiffi were barking downstairs, Dil started to stir, and judging from the sounds of footsteps Tommy heard outside their bedroom door, he figured his parents were awake too.

"Morning Tommy." Dil said, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes and sitting up in his crib.

Tommy, now starting to grow exhausted, crawled over to Dil's crib, where he had placed the roundhouse on the floor. Using the top of the roundhouse as a stool, he stood on it, making him able to reach the latch on the crib he needed to undo with his screwdriver to let Dil out. He would have given it to Dil, but decided against it for now, not wishing to have it thrown at him again.

"There you go Dilly." Tommy said, before letting out a huge yawn.

"Hmmm, did somebody play all night?" Dil asked.

Tommy shook his head, as he climbed down from the roundhouse and helped Dil out of the crib on to the floor.

Before Tommy could answer, Didi opened the door and knocked over one of Tommy's drawbridges. Realizing what she was stepping on, she saw her two boys on the floor by the massive layout of train track.

"My, somebody's been up early playing." Didi said, being careful to step over the track, only she bumped into another bridge, knocking it over.

Noticing the two bridges knocked over, Tommy started crying, and Dil followed his lead.

"Now now boys, don't cry, let's get you two changed and then we'll all head down for some breakfast." Didi said with a smile, as she got her boys on to the changing table, and saw to changing their diapers, one at a time.

While Tommy waited his turn to be changed, as his mommy started with Dil, he could really feel the fatigue settling in, and might have passed out right then and there, only the wetness of the powder and having his diaper changed brought him out of his slump.

Meanwhile, at the Devilles and Finsters, Betty, Howard, Chas and Kira all awoke in the morning and went downstairs to have their first cups of coffee for the day, when everybody noticed their kids in the living room.

Howard turned to his wife.

"What are Phil and Lil doing in here?" Howard asked.

"I couldn't bare to move the pups, they were so cute!" Betty replied, showing him the picture she took on her phone.

At that moment, Phil and Lil started to stir, displeased by the odor they smelled, realizing they were now in trouble.

"Uh oh." Phil and Lil cried in unison, when they removed their torn up pieces of blanket to find that by not wearing diapers throughout the night, they had accidents in their blankets and on the floor.

Howard let out a reluctant sigh, as he went and put the poopy blankets into the wash, and Betty took her kids upstairs to give them a bath. This time, Phil and Lil didn't struggle, as not only was it a new day, but they knew that they'd have a chance to get dirty later when they went to Tommy's house.

At the Finsters, Chas and Kira came downstairs to hear some snores coming from the living room. Chas peaked in to see Chuckie and Kimi asleep on the couch. He then turned to his wife.

"Why are our kids in the living room?" Chas whispered.

"I don't know, but let's have our breakfast, and then we'll get them up." Kira whispered back, as they tip towed quietly into the kitchen to get their morning started.

Things ran normally at Jesse and Zack's places, because their bedtime routines weren't nearly as spoiled as they were at the other houses, but at Tommy and Dil's, while Dil was giggling and wide awake at breakfast, Tommy was slowly eating through his bowl of Reptar cereal, unsure if he'd manage to stay awake.

And this, ends chapter 4. So, what will happen next? And will Tommy make it through the day? Find out, come the next chapter!

Author's Note: Can't say I really referenced any Rugrats episodes in this chapter, though if I did, feel free to point it out in your review, but in the Search for Reptar game, in Tommy's house, there was a plant in the downstairs hallway in the corner near the downstairs bathroom, and so decided to have that be the place where Tommy hid when his daddy passed out on the floor come bedtime. And in terms of the tail end of Nigel Thornberry's Animal World that Tommy saw, he was watching the episode of the show that he and Maryanne were shooting during the Wild Thornberrys episode from season 1, entitled, Bad Company. Hope you all enjoyed the chapter, and, I hope to have more chapters, up sometime soon.


	5. Tommy Sleeps the Day Away

Chapter 5, Tommy Sleeps the Day Away

Tommy was sitting at the breakfast table. He was exhausted, as he felt a headache coming on, and noticed he was getting some teeth on the top row of his mouth. He stared down at his bowl of Reptar cereal, only half gone at this point. No longer feeling hungry, but more so tired, he hopped down from his chair at the table, while Dil, now finished with his oatmeal, sat in his highchair, hoping to be let out soon. Didi came over and took Dil out of his highchair and placed him down on the kitchen floor, when she looked over at the table and noticed that Tommy hadn't finished his breakfast.

"Come on sweetie don't you want some more breakfast?" Didi asked, putting Tommy back in his chair.

The two-year-old thought about it for a minute, and considered putting the bowl on his head, similarly to what he did when his mommy tried to get him to eat nummy nums before they went on that adventure to Moose Country, but then reconsidered, when he remembered that he now had hair. It wouldn't be as simple as wiping off his bald head with a rag anymore. Instead, his mommy or daddy would have to give him a bath, and while Tommy loved taking his baths, he was also known to grow very sleepy post taking a bath, and his friends hadn't even arrived to play yet. Little did he know at this point that it wouldn't have mattered or not, but not wishing to make his mommy wait any longer for his answer, Tommy picked up the bowl half full of Reptar cereal and milk that had turned green, and threw it on the kitchen floor, just barely missing Dil, who was crawling around the kitchen by a few inches.

"Tommy! We do not throw our food on the floor. I'm sorry sweetie, but I'm gonna have to put you in time out while I get this mess cleaned up." Didi said, as Tommy threw himself down on the floor and started to scream.

Didi picked up the child and took him into the living room, where Stu was watching the Dummi Bears. She placed him down on the couch and switched off the TV.

"What's going on? I was watching that." Stu said.

"I could use some help Stu. Tommy threw his breakfast on the floor. Get Dil into the playpen while I clean up the mess." Didi said, as she and Stu headed into the kitchen and took care of this stuff, while Tommy calmed down at this point.

Completely forgetting he was suppose to be in time out, he got down from the couch and picked up the clicker off of the coffee table, turning on the TV to watch the end of Dummi Bears, followed by the next show that was suppose to come on. When Stu came back into the living room and placed Dil into the playpen, he noticed the TV was turned back on.

"How did that TV get turned back on?" Stu asked out loud, when he turned to see the remote in his oldest son's hand.

He came over and snatched the remote out of Tommy's hands and turned off the TV, placing it on a high shelf out of the toddler's reach.

"Now Tommy, you were suppose to be sitting in time out." Stu said irritably, picking up his son and trying to figure out what to do.

At that moment, Didi came to the kitchen doorway.

"What's wrong Stu?" Didi asked.

"Tommy didn't sit still and turned on the television with the remote. I now got it out of his reach." Stu replied.

Though Tommy wasn't crying at this point, before Didi could say another word, the doorbell rang. She went to get the door to find that Dana was there with Jesse, as were Betty with Phil and Lil, and Chas with Chuckie and Kimi. Celeste wasn't too far behind with Zack, and Didi was quite surprised at how close together everybody arrived on this particular day.

"We'd better get going Chazzy, we should have opened the Java Lava ten minutes ago." Betty said, dropping her twins off in the playpen and handing over their diaper bags to Didi.

"Bye kids, be good!" Chas called, waving goodbye, as Chuckie and Kimi waved back.

"Keep an eye on Jesse today, he's been very fussy as of late." Dana instructed Didi.

"Don't worry Dana, I've been reading all about this in Lipschitz, and it's perfectly normal for kids Jesse's age to have tantrums. It's helping them learn that such behaviors are not appropriate that's the difficult part. Not to worry though, if any of the kids today should get out of line, we'll take care of it accordingly. Have a nice day at work." Didi said, leading Dana back to the door, where Celeste was walking up, in one hand, was her cane, while in the other, was a still sleeping Zachary, carrying his bottle of hot milk and ovaltine.

"Don't mind me, Zack fell asleep on the way over this morning while drinking his hot milk in the car, and he didn't wake up yet." Celeste whispered to Didi, handing Zack and his stuff over to her.

"That's fine. You have a nice day and we'll see you at the usual time?" Didi asked, putting the sleeping Zack down on the couch and his bottle that was still warm on the end table next to one of the easy chairs.

"Yes, I should be here at around five o'clock this afternoon." Celeste said, heading out the door.

"I couldn't help but notice Zack has chocolate milk." Didi said.

"Yes, I mix in Ovaltine with his milk. He loves it! I let Tommy try some when he was over too, and he seemed to enjoy it as well." Celeste said, as she was getting into her driverless van, Didi, standing outside the car seeing her off.

" _Hmmm_." Didi thought to herself, as Celeste saw to driving away and Didi headed back into the house to get some more cleaning done.

Tommy was standing up at the edge of the playpen, holding on to the fence part for support, but mostly, to keep himself awake, as he was really feeling sleepy at this point, and noticing his older brother, Dil crawled over and decided to try doing the same. To his surprise, he found when he grabbed on to the edge of the playpen, he could stand up while holding on to something. This excited the 10-months-old toddler, as this meant he might start walking soon, but while Dil had a smile on his face, Tommy not only looked exhausted and miserable with a headache, but he almost looked as if he had been hit by a truck, that is, until he spotted Zack's bottle on the end table. Longing for some hot chocolate milk, and not even noticing his friends who had recently arrived, he quietly left the playpen and snuck over to Zack's bottle. At that moment, Zack stirred and glanced over in that direction to see Tommy taking his bottle.

"Oh, hi Tommy." Zack said, rubbing his eyes, sitting up, and climbing down off of the couch.

"Hi Zack, do you mind if I have this? Mommy don't gots any of the chocolate stuff." Tommy asked.

"Sure! I don't want anymore hot milk anyways." Zack said, following Tommy back into the playpen, and latching it shut behind him with a popcickle stick he had in his diaper.

"Wow Zack, you gave Tommy your bottle, just like that?" Lil asked.

"Well, yeah! He asked nicely." Zack said.

"Me and Lil aren't spose to share stuff like that. In fact, we even toldid Tommy so back when he tried to get our bottles from us." Phil commented.

"Really?" Zack asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Yeah, till he tricked us in believing there was a monster nearby." Lil said.

"Yeah, we dropped our bottles in a panic, falling for the trick." Phil added.

"And ever since then, we've made sure to finish our morning bottles before coming over to play." Lil concluded.

"I see. Good thing I'm much more liberal, cuz if Tommy had tricked me like that, well, I'm too smart to fall for stuff like that." Zack replied.

"So Tommy, Dil, how you guys doing?" Chuckie asked.

"I can stand!" Dil cried excitedly.

Tommy however, was too engrossed in drinking what remained of Zack's bottle to answer. A short while later, he had finished the bottle, and he was so sleepy, that he collapsed to the floor.

"Tommy! Are you all right?" Chuckie asked concerned.

"I'm fine Chuckie, I just, need to lie down for a minute." Tommy said, letting out a huge yawn, as his eyes slammed shut and he fell asleep.

"Tommy! Come on, wake up!" Chuckie cried, running over to where he had passed out in the playpen and trying to shake him awake, without much luck.

However, at that moment, something happened that they had never noticed before.

"Chuckie, Wawa is right there, you've gots nothing to be worried about." Tommy said in his sleep.

"Huh? What is he talking about? I didn't bring Wawa with me today. He's at home on my bed." Chuckie said.

"I don't know but that was funny!" Kimi said.

Zack let out a tiny chuckle, but then everybody put their fingers up to their lips, trying to not wake up Tommy.

"Uh, maybe we ought to go play somewhere else." Dil suggested.

"I know, let's go upstairs and play trains." Zack suggested, using the popcickle stick to open up the playpen again since there was no spare screwdriver around, and he knew digging into Tommy's pockets might wake him up.

Once he had the playpen open, everybody quietly left, leaving Tommy to his slumbers, while they went up to Tommy and Dil's room to find a huge train layout already set up.

"Wow Dil, did you and Tommy work on this together after we all went home yesterday night?" Zack asked, upon seeing the layout.

"Nope, just Tommy. He wanted me to play, but I refused. I wanted to go night night." Dil said, sitting down near one of the bridges.

"I didn't do so well with bedtime banishment neither. Mommy read me my bedtime book, and the nextest thing I knew, I was asleep in my daddy's lap and waked up this morning in my own bed." Jesse said, sitting down on the floor near the bucket of trains, and taking out some of the train cars, and a locomotive, putting them together on the roundhouse and turning it around so it could ride on one of the pieces of track connected to it.

"I fell asleep in front of the TV while my aunty was watching it. I then waked up this morning and had breakfast, but as usual, tooked another nappy in the car. Don't ask me why, but I find the movement of the car always makes me sleepy." Zack said, sitting down near one of the tunnels.

"Me and Lillian gotted out of taking our baths and slept nakie in the living room." Phil said.

"Yeah, til we waked up this morning to find we pooped all over our blankie." Lil added.

"Me and Chuckie slept in the living room too." Kimi added.

"Yeah, though I didn't really want to. And as for finding Nigel Strawberry, we looked everywhere, and no luck." Chuckie said.

"We couldn't even get the TV turndid on, cuz somebody hided the clicker." Lil said.

"Did not Lillian." Phil argued.

"Did too Phillip." Lil argued, stepping on the draw bridge that Didi had knocked over earlier.

Lil picked it up, and looking around at the train layout, she wasn't sure if this was the right place for that draw bridge.

"I think the drawbridge should go over there." Lil said, pointing over to where some track poked out from beneath Tommy's bed, but was not connected to some track further down.

"I think it should stay right here." Phil said.

"No, it should go over there." Lil argued, pointing over to where she wanted to move it.

"No, leave it alone!" Phil argued.

The two twins continued to argue until Dil picked up some loose track, and threw it at the twins heads, causing them to drop the drawbridge they were fighting over. Then, everybody had train cars to race on the tracks, until Dil went around and started grabbing everybody's trains.

"My train!" Dil cried, taking Chuckie's train away from him.

"No Dil, that's my train." Chuckie said.

"My train!" Dil cried, grabbing at the one Jesse was playing with.

"Hey! That was mine!" Jesse cried, taking his train back.

This caused Dil to start crying, which downstairs in the kitchen, Stu and Didi heard all of the noise on the baby monitor, and went upstairs to see what was going on.

"Oh dear, I think it might be time for your late morning nap." Didi said, scooping up the crying Dil and placing him in his crib.

Stu took the other toddlers back downstairs, where Tommy was still sound asleep in the playpen, so he turned down the volume on the TV and put back on the rest of the Runaway Reptar movie on DVD for the kids to watch. Then, he went downstairs to work on one of his inventions. Once he was gone, the toddlers all thought of using this as another opportunity to try to wake up Tommy to play with them, as while they did have fun playing with trains upstairs, they find it's a lot more fun when Tommy plays with them.

Phil ran over to the playpen and tried to tell Tommy that Reptar was on.

"Come on Tommy, Reptar's on!" Phil cried, shaking the two-year-old.

Again, no luck at fully waking him, but again, another startling surprise as Tommy spoke up again.

"Angelica ated all of the Reptar cookies." Tommy said in his sleep.

Phil gasp and ran back over to the other toddlers.

"You guys, I don't member Tommy ever sleep talking before, do you?" Phil asked.

Everyone shook their heads no, as the movie reached the climax.

"What did he say this time?" Kimi asked.

"I don't know, something about Angelica finishing Reptar cookies. Angelica's not even here." Phil said.

"Yeah, and I don't know about you guys, but that's just fine by me." Zack said.

Everybody else nodded their heads in agreement, just as the ending credits to the Runaway Reptar movie finished rolling on the screen, and the DVD returned to the main menu screen.

"Now what do we do?" Lil asked.

"I know, let's go play outside." Zack suggested.

Everybody liked the idea, so they headed to the kitchen, where they crawled out of the doggy door into the backyard, since the back door was closed, and went to play in the sandbox. Again, while they had fun building sandcastles and digging wholes, not having Tommy there to play somewhat ruined their fun. While playing though, after what they went through the previous night, and figuring out that Tommy had stayed awake all night, as how else would he have had time to build that train layout all by himself, only to fall asleep during the day, not being available to play, everybody decided to not stay up late no more.

"Now you guys see why I think not going to bed is such a bad idea." Chuckie said.

"Yeah, me and Lillian aren't gonna do that no more." Phil said.

"Me neither, specially since I never made it up past story time anyways." Jesse commented.

"And since Tommy fell asleep, he's missing play time with us." Dil added.

"I wonder if Tommy's awake yet you guys?" Chuckie asked.

"Let's go see." Lil suggested, as they all went over to the large glass sliding door that looked into the playpen where Tommy was still sound asleep.

They then peered into the kitchen where Didi was fixing lunch, and realizing they had snuck outside, they shook off the sand from Tommy's sandbox, and saw to crawling back inside, Spike and Spiffi following behind them. Stu came into the kitchen moments later carrying Dil, who was now wide awake and ready for lunch, while the toddlers and dogs went back into the living room. They turned around to see that Spike and Spiffi had followed them inside, giving them another idea to get Tommy awake.

"Tommy's never this hard to wake up you guys." Chuckie said.

"Yeah! He usually wakes right up if you let him know something's wrong." Lil said.

"Or if Spike starts licking him." Phil added.

"That's it you guys, come on, let's give both of these a try." Zack said, leading Spike over to the playpen.

"Here Spike, here boy." Zack called, as Spike ran over to Tommy and started licking his face.

Usually, he'd wake right up and start giggling, but this time, he only opened his eyes slightly and made another strange comment.

"Let's get out of this rain." Tommy said sleepily, before his eyes slammed shut again and he went right back to sleep.

Chuckie then ran over to where Tommy was sleeping, about ready to make up something to get him to wake up, but he couldn't bring himself to do it.

"What's wrong Chuckie?" Lil asked.

"I can't do it you guys. I don't wanna wake him up. I mean, nothing is really wrong. He might not like it if we try to lie to him." Chuckie said, backing away from Tommy and heading out of the playpen.

Just then, Stu and Didi came into the living room to get the kids for lunch, when Didi noticed Tommy passed out in the playpen.

"You know Stu, I've passed by a few times this morning and noticed Tommy's been sleeping a good while now." Didi said, going over to the playpen and placing her hand on his forehead to see if he had a fever.

"Hmmm, he doesn't seem to have a fever. Come on sweetie, time to wake up." Didi said, but Tommy didn't budge.

"I wouldn't worry about it Deed, he probably just, needs some rest." Stu said, rounding up the other toddlers and taking them into the kitchen, while Spike and Spiffi lay on the living room floor to take a nap.

"I suppose you're right. I'll put Tommy's lunch up to feed him for dinner." Didi said, scooping the chopped up hotdog on Tommy's plate into a container and storing it away in the fridge, and putting the chips back into the bag.

The other toddlers sat down at the table and ate their lunches of the same content, not talking much, as all of them were really missing Tommy and starting to get worried. Soon after lunch, it was nap time. Didi gave them their hot milk, and they all curled up on pillows and blankets surrounding the still passed out Tommy in the playpen.

"Well, at least we can all take a nap together." Chuckie commented, taking his glasses off and placing them above his pillow.

"Who knows Chuckie, maybe Tommy will wake up when we wake up after our nap." Zack said, letting out a yawn.

All of the other toddlers yawned and fell asleep. However, another two hours went by, and while everybody woke up, Tommy remained asleep. Everyone sighed in disappointment, as they went into the kitchen to have some firecracker red, white, and blue popcickles for a snack, and went outside to play until their parents and guardians came to pick them up.

"Let's play follow the leader!" Kimi suggested.

"Okay." Everyone else replied in unison.

Kimi was the leader and she got them all to do summersalts, which Dil had trouble doing, then had them run, which Dil had trouble doing, even if he found stuff to hold on to, and crawl under several places, including the picnic table. Before they knew it, their families showed up and it was time to take them home. And once again, Tommy slept through it all. He even slept through dinner, which worried Didi, and she thought about calling the Lipschitz hotline, only the chicken she was cooking in the oven was ready, and got busy fixing dinner, nearly forgetting about the call. She, Stu and Dil all sat down to dinner, and while Dil usually found it fun to throw his food he wasn't interested in at his brother, he didn't find it much fun to throw his food, even at the dogs, without Tommy there to participate. To Stu and Didi's surprise, their youngest son ate all of his food without trying to make too much of a mess.

"Our oldest is sleeping and our youngest is eating neatly. Are you sure we don't have any poka dice around here?" Didi asked Stu.

"Beats me." Stu muttered, just as the phone rang.

"I'll get it." Stu said, getting up to answer the phone, as Didi cleaned up Dil and placed him down in the playpen.

By the time everybody left and dinner was finished, Dil couldn't take it anymore, and decided to take matters into his own hands. He crawled over to Tommy in the playpen, picked up one of his raddles off of the floor, and threw it at Tommy's head.

"Ow!" Tommy cried, bulting upright and glaring at his brother.

" _Wish I had thought of that earlier._ " Dil thought to himself,as Tommy was looking around the playpen.

"Hey! Where is everybody?" Tommy asked.

"They all went bye bye Tommy." Dil replied.

Tommy then looked out the doors at the back of the playpen to see it was no longer light outside.

"The sun went to bed too? I slept through everything?" Tommy asked angrily.

"Yep, even dinner." Dil replied.

Tommy's stomach let out a huge growl.

"That's it! I don't care no more. Maybe Chuckie was right. Maybe skipping bedtime was a bad idea." Tommy said.

"I even thought Zack's idea wasn't so smart neither." Dil added.

"Except, I don't know how to fix it." Tommy said.

"Why not go to bed when I do." Dil suggested.

"That's it! Thanks Dilly." Tommy said, giving his little brother a hug.

"Wow, look who's up?" Didi asked, coming over to the playpen to see that Tommy and Dil were awake.

Glancing up at the clock on the wall, she saw it was time to put the kids to bed.

"It's time for bed kids." Didi said, scooping up Dil in her arms, Tommy, leaving the playpen and following close behind her.

Just then, Stu got off of the phone and followed Didi and Tommy up the stairs. Didi saw to doing their bedtime routine, which consisted of reading a book, giving them their bottles, which while the toddlers were taking their nap that afternoon, Stu watched the kids while she ran to the store and got some more milk and some Ovaltine, and to Tommy's pleasant surprise, he got some hot chocolate milk that night, and Didi was pleased that he didn't put up a fuss this time. However, she gave Dil the usual regular milk, since according toLipschitz, babies shouldn't be introduced to chocolate until after they turned a-year-old and were tested for allergies to the stuff.

She then rocked them in the rocking chair, and sang Beautiful Dreamer to them, the same song she sang to Dil in, Music, then placed Dil in his crib, and Tommy into his favorite white footsy Reptar pajamas, the same ones he wore to Zack's apartment, as they had since been washed, and got him tucked into his bed.

However, in the process, she stepped over several train tracks, and realized that having the trains there for him to play with the night before might have caused him to wake up early, not knowing he actually stayed up all night. Stu came into the bedroom and helped Didi pick up all of the train stuff, then together, they put the stuff in a corner of their bedroom and closed the door, locking it so if Tommy were to wake up during the night, he wouldn't find it to play with. Once the trains were picked up, Stu and Didi turned to their boys, Dil nearly asleep, and Tommy, who lay there awake, watching everything.

"Goodnight kids." Stu and Didi said simultaneously, as they kissed both of their boys, turned out the lights, and headed off to bed themselves.

Once the couple was in bed after changing into their pajamas and closing the door, Didi turned to her husband.

"Who was the phone honey?" Didi asked.

"That was Mister Mucklehoney. He has some new projects for me and would like to have dinner on Thursday night." Stu said.

"You mean, the same night Lipschitz is giving a seminar at the library?" Didi asked.

"Yes, but relax Deed, I'm sure we can find someone to watch the boys." Stu said, yawning and falling asleep.

Didi soon yawned and did the same. At this point, the entire Pickles household was sound asleep, all except for one person. As Tommy lay there in bed, wide awake, unable to get to sleep, something told him that getting his days and nights turned around, was going to be much harder than he thought.

And this, ends chapter 5. And yes, Tommy will have a long road ahead of him, but what will happen along the way, as he tries to turn his nights and days around? Find out, beginning in the next chapter!

Author's Note: A small reference to Weaning Tommy was made in this chapter, and the part where Stu and Didi stored the train stuff in their bedroom to keep Tommy from playing with it at night was taken from real life experiences, when my parents have had to do the same with my nephew for a while. Hope you enjoyed the chapter, and be looking for more chapters, hopefully very soon!


	6. Booboos

Chapter 6, Booboos

Once again, Tommy snuck out during the night, after not being able to sleep. He thought about playing with the trains again, but noticed the box of track, bucket of trains, and roundhouse were nowhere in sight. He looked everywhere he could think of, and couldn't find it anywhere. By the time he finished looking, he was downstairs, and remembered about watching Nigel Thornberry on TV. However, he noticed the remote wasn't on the coffee table. He then thought back and recalled his daddy placing it on a high shelf. Sure enough, it was still on that shelf, but it was too high for him to reach himself. He ran upstairs and started raddling the bars on Dil's crib, hoping to wake him up.

"Wake up Dilly, I need help." Tommy said.

Dil opened one eye and glared at his brother.

"What now?" Dil asked irritably, as the ten-month-old toddler sat up in bed.

"Come on." Tommy said, tossing the screwdriver to his brother.

He stood up against the side of the crib, unlatched it and Tommy helped him down to the floor, where Dil crawled beside him, and they headed downstairs.

" _I hope after I help Tommy with this, he let's me sleep._ " Dil thought, as they headed into the living room, where Tommy pointed to the clicker on the bookshelf.

"Now, I need you to climb on top of me and get the clicker down." Tommy said.

"But I can't even walk yet." Dil said.

"Yeah, but you can stand. Come on, please? We can watch Nigel Strawberry together." Tommy said.

Dil let out a reluctant sigh, but decided to go along with it. After all, his older brother has gotten him this far in life, surely he could pay him back.

"All right I'll do it." Dil said, as Tommy crouched down on to the floor and Dil crawled on top of his back.

He then stood up as Tommy then stood up, making Dil have to climb up to Tommy's shoulders. Then, grabbing on to the bookshelf with one hand, he stood on Tommy's shoulders, and just barely being able to reach up to where the clicker was on the next shelf up above where he was holding on for support, he managed to reach it enough with his finger tips, that he pushed the remote to the edge of the shelf, then grabbed it, only to knock it to the floor. Tommy stepped back, stepping on the power button of the remote, which turned on the TV at a high volume. Startled, he fell backwards, bumping his head on the coffee table while Dil went flying through the air, landing on the couch.

"Outch!" Tommy cried, tears streaming down his face.

He bit his lip though, trying to keep his composure, not wishing to cry in front of his little brother, as he got to his feet, picked up the remote, and noticing it wasn't on the channel that aired Nigel's show, he started flipping through them. He found it, getting to see Nigel talk about the Andean condor.

"You okay Tommy?" Dil asked.

"Yeah, but I'm really hungry." Tommy replied.

Dil, not interested in watching Nigel's show, crawled into the dark kitchen, hoping to find something for Tommy to eat without having to climb anything. Lucky for him, he spotted a bag of something on the bottom shelf of the pantry. He pulled it down and drug it back to the living room. Soon, a commercial came on, and Tommy turned to see the bag next to Dil.

"Wow, Reptar bars! Thanks Dilly." Tommy said, ripping the bag open and taking them out to eat.

During the remainder of the show, Tommy had his share of Reptar bars, nearly filling up on them, causing him to get a tummy ache in the end. This only made it all the more harder for him to get to sleep, as his tummy was bothering him. After the show was over, he turned off the TV, leaving the clicker on the coffee table, not feeling much up to climbing up the bookshelf again, and he and Dil headed back upstairs, where Dil climbed in his crib, and Tommy lay down in bed, lying awake the rest of the night, which felt very long, hoping his tummy ache would go away.

Finally, morning came, and to his surprise, it wasn't hurting anymore. However, he was starting to feel tired at this point, but then, recalling what happened the day before, he knew something else had to be done as well.

" _I can't sleep during the day._ " Tommy thought to himself, as Didi came in to get the boys up and ready for the day.

Later, their friends came over to play, and Peter even came over to watch them while Stu and Didi ran out to run some arrons.

"Thanks for watching the kids, we'll be back later. Oh, and Tommy's lunch is already fixed, thanks to him sleeping through lunch and dinner yesterday." Didi said.

"Thanks for telling me." Peter said, seeing Stu and Didi off, before going to the kitchen to look over some blueprints for a couple of things he was inventing.

Meanwhile, over in the playpen, Tommy, Chuckie, Phil, Lil, Zack, Jesse, and Dil were all trying to decide on what to play that day. Tommy was really feeling tired, but he wasn't going to let himself fall asleep, or though he thought, not after sleeping through the previous day missing all of the fun. Dil however, had managed to get back to sleep, and while he felt like the night could have been longer upon waking up that morning, he wasn't nearly as tired as Tommy was at that moment.

"I know, let's go play trains again." Phil suggested.

"That's a great idea Phil." Zack commented, as everybody stood up, waiting for Tommy to make his move.

"Well, okay, but can we play with the old electronic train with the string on it down here?" Chuckie asked.

"Come on Chuckie, you know me and Tommy outgrew that train ages ago." Zack commented, as he had seen it one of the first times he came over to play and was very disappointed in it, growing bored with it quickly.

"Yeah, but if Tommy didn't already leave the train layout set up, I've gotta build track, and I'm always pinching my fingers. And then, it's going in so many directions, it's hard to know which way it goes. I like simple circle tracks." Chuckie said.

"That's boring." Zack replied.

"And besides, not sure if Tommy saw, but I don't recall the trains being in our room no more when we waked up this morning." Dil added.

Tommy wouldn't admit it, but he noticed it gone the night before, and wasn't sure where it disappeared to, and while under normal circumstances, he might have been all for looking for it and playing with trains, most of it involved sitting down, which would only make him all the more likely to fall asleep. He preferred to play something that would keep him walking around and moving. And it was then that he came up with his brilliant idea.

"I gots an even better idea you guys. Let's play Okey-dokey Jones and go on a aventure to find the hidden treasure." Tommy suggested.

"Oh boy! That sounds like fun!" Kimi cried.

"I agree Kimi, that does sound like fun." Zack added, blushing a smile in her direction.

"Okay you guys, let's go." Tommy said, unlatching the playpen with his screwdriver and the adventure began.

At that moment, the living room transformed into a cave, where Tommy, now dressed as Okey-Dokey Jones, just like at the beginning of the first Rugrats Movie, only he was wearing shorts with his explorer top, and some of his purple hair showed beneath the hat, lead the other toddlers, all wearing explorer's suits through the cave. Noticing a stream of sunlight, Tommy as Okey-Dokey turned to his crew.

"The exit is this way, let's go you guys." Tommy said, going towards the opening, failing to notice some rocks sticking out right above his eyes.

He ran into the rocks, bumping his forehead in the process. In actuality, he was so tired, that he really wasn't wwatching out where he was walking, and ran into the door frame as he headed into the kitchen towards the open back door, where Peter had gone outside, and decided to help Didi out by watering some of her plants, leaving the garden hose lying across the patio.

"You okay Tommy, uh, I mean, Okey-dokey." Chuckie asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Come on." Tommy said, inching his way further towards the exit of the cave, which was in actuality, the open doors leading out of the kitchen into the backyard.

Upon stepping outside, a snake crossed their path, which Okey-dokey failed to notice, tripping over the snake, which was in actuality, the garden hose, falling down on some stones, scraping his knee. This nearly made him lose it, but trying to stay in character, he glanced down at the booboo on his knee, then shook it off, as he stood up and looked around outside, trying to figure out the best direction to take.

"I think it's this way you guys, but careful, there might be quick sand." Tommy as Okey-dokey Jones said, inching towards what was in actuality, his sandbox in real life.

Once again, the toddler lost it again, not watching where he was going, tripping over the edge of the sandbox, falling into the sand face first. This ended their fun, as the rural area turned back into Tommy and Dil's backyard, and Tommy, now with sand in his eyes, started to cry. Overhearing his cries from another part of the yard, Peter rushed over.

"What's wrong?" Peter asked, picking up Tommy, who was still crying.

"He fell." Chuckie replied.

"Come on Tommy, let's go take a look." Peter said, carrying Tommy inside, who was starting to calm down.

Inside the kitchen, all of the toddlers sat on the floor, watching Peter treat Tommy's wounds. He washed the sand out of his eyes, cleaned up the scrape on his knee by putting some medicine on the scrape and covering it with one of the Reptar bandages, only since all of the ones with Reptar's picture were gone, he put one on there with Robosnails on it.

"That's Robosnails Peter, I wanted a sticky with Reptar on it." Tommy cried.

"Sorry Tommy, your mom appears to be out of the Reptar ones. All that's left in the package are Robosnails, the professor, Spunky the dog, and Dectar. I'll make sure your mom knows you're all out of ones with Reptar on them, so she can get more at the store." Peter said, getting some ice out of the freezer and wrapping it in a towel.

Noticing the bump on Tommy's forehead from when he ran into the door frame, he carried him into the living room, placed him down in one of the purple easy chairs, and had him hold the ice on his head.

"Now just hold that for a few minutes." Peter instructed.

Tommy did what he was told, though he could tell sitting in the soft, comfortable chair, wasn't doing him any good at staying awake. Peter noticed how tired he looked.

"You sure you're okay Tommy, you're awfully tired." Peter said worriedly.

"I'm fine Peter." Tommy replied, letting out a huge yawn, unable to hide his exhaustion any longer.

"You just sit tight and rest, I'll be back to check on you in a little while." Peter said, just as the other toddlers came into the living room.

"How's Tommy doing?" Chuckie asked.

"Yeah, ready to go play more Okey-dokey Jones? That was fun!" Zack cried.

"I think Tommy needs to rest. Come on, why don't we all go sit at the table and play with Clay-dough and do some puzzles." Peter suggested.

All of the toddlers liked that idea, including Tommy, but apparently, that chair was too powerful, as the next thing he knew, his eyes slammed shut, and he was out like a light.

The rest of the day was more or less, uneventful, as Peter fed the rest of the toddlers their lunch, and saw to putting them down for their naps with pillows and blankets he found in the hall closet, laying them out in the playpen, while Tommy continued to sleep in the chair. At a point while the toddlers were all napping, Stu and Didi returned from their Aarons, where they went to the kitchen table to have a snack and talk.

"So, how did your arrons go?" Peter asked.

"Just fine. I've got more supplies for any inventions Mister Mucklehoney might ask me to put together. Got a business dinner with him the day after tomorrow." Stu said.

"Mister Mucklehoney?" Peter asked, raising an eyebrow.

"You know, the head of Mucklehoney Industries? Oh that's right, we didn't know you when we had dinner together." Stu said, realizing that fact.

"Well, I'd like to come along, if that's all right with you." Peter said.

"Let me make sure it's okay." Stu said.

"We do need someone to watch the kids, as I'm going to a seminar being held at the public library on Thursday night. Doctor Lipschitz is the speaker, and he plans to talk a lot about his newest book, the two-year-old terrors." Didi said.

"Speaking of two-year-olds, you've run out of Reptar bandages with Reptar's picture on them, and, have you guys noticed anything off about Tommy lately?" Peter asked.

"Thanks for telling me Peter, I'll make sure to put those on the grocery list. And as for Tommy's behavior as of late, yes, he slept over at Zack's the other night, and since he returned, he seems to be more fussy, and not sleeping at night." Didi said.

"He slept all day yesterday, and this morning when we awoke, we found several candy wrappers on the floor, and the remote for the TV in a different spot." Stu said.

"And yesterday, I went to wake up the boys to find them awake, and them playing with the trains." Didi said.

"Even stashing the trains in our bedroom didn't stop them from having a party last night. I've also noticed the TV on the KLPO channel when we get up in the morning." Stu said.

"Hmmm." Peter thought to himself, putting a finger up to his lips.

"And Tommy refuses to drink milk if it doesn't have Ovaltine in it. Apparently, he was introduced to this at the sleepover too, and it's as if he likes Zack's routine over ours. And I don't totally know what type of schedule Celeste has Zack on, but obviously not a good one, as he often, shows up at our house in the mornings, still asleep. I'm really worried about this." Didi said with concern.

"Wish I knew what to tell you." Peter said.

"I think I might know what to do." Stu said with a twinkle in his eye, standing up from the kitchen table.

"What is it Stu?" Peter asked.

"Well, if you'd like to come down to the basement with me, I'll fill you in." Stu said.

Before Peter could answer, his iPhone started ringing. He reached into the pocket of his gray Confederate uniform and answered the call.

"Hello?" Peter said into the call.

"Hello Peter, it's Goofy! Ready to play golf?" Goofy asked into the phone.

"Oh my gosh! I ended up being asked to babysit at the last minute. I completely forgot about our golf game. I'll be right over to the world of Disney to play." Peter said, disconnecting the call.

He looked up at Stu and Didi with a frown.

"What's wrong Peter?" Didi asked.

"I forgot I promised Goofy a game of golf. I'll take a raincheck on helping you out with your idea Stu, why don't you go on ahead and get started, and give me a call if you have any problems. Also, please keep me posted on the Mister Mucklehoney situation." Peter said.

"Not a problem Peter, have fun." Stu said, leaving the kitchen and heading down to the basement, where he got to work, while Petersaw to leaving the kitchen, exiting the Pickles house out the front door.

"Goodbye Peter." Didi called.

"Goodbye Didi." Peter called, as he vanished, heading off to the world of Disney for his golf game with Goofy.

By this time, it was time to get the kids up from their nap. To her pleasant surprise, Tommy even awoke this time, though to the toddlers surprise, he didn't want to play Okey-dokey Jones anymore the rest of the day, and only wanted to play quiet games, like roll the ball and blocks until everybody went home. When the adults came to pick up the kids, Chas mentioned the Lipschitz seminar to Didi, and she was pleased that he was thinking of going. Betty and Celeste didn't want to have anything to do with it, but Dana and Laura thought they might see what this Lipschitz person had to offer, since they had been having trouble with Jesse and his temper tantrums as of late.

Meanwhile, Stu had moved his materials he was working with up to the boys' bedroom, and while he was absent at dinner, at least both, Tommy and Dil had dinner together, complete with leftover chicken from the night before, mash potatoes, and green beans. After dinner though, was when Stu was ready to reveal what he had been working on for most of the afternoon and all evening, in order to help Tommy sleep better at night.

And this, ends chapter 6. And what is that invention? Find out, come the next chapter!

Author's Note: I don't own Goofy, or any of the Disney characters for that matter, they're the property of their original creaters. Also, sorry if this chapter was a bit short, but I wanted to portray a couple of facts that are well-known with most average two-year-olds. One, them getting overly tired, but not wanting to go to sleep for fear of missing things, and two, them getting so tired, that they fail to pay attention, hurting themselves in the process. I've found my nephew to be like this at times, and since I find my nephew in real life shares traits in common with Dil in the departments of his tendancies to get cranky easily, poop a lot, put things in his mouth and throw things, while like Tommy, he gets into trouble when nobody's watching, as well as being stubborn at points, he's also one to not want to go to sleep sometimes, and sometimes, he's so overly tired, that he won't watch where he's going, running into things. This has happened more while he was two, and I wanted to have Tommy go through such a phase, as he battles the difficulties of getting his schedule turned around, something else that has happened with my nephew at points throughout this last year as well. Also, he and my OC share the trait of growing sleepy when in the car. And FYI, while I didn't give a lot of dialogue from the episode of Nigel Thornberry's show presented in this chapter, based on the animal he was talking about, I decided to have Tommy catch this time, the episode shot during The Wild Thornberrys episode, Flight of the Donnie. Also, at one time, when Tommy eats the Reptar bars that Dil sneaks out of the kitchen for him, I was going to have him stick out his green tongue at Dil, frightening him with it, but decided to remove that part when writing the chapter, as he already awoke Dil to get his help getting the remote down. I didn't wish for him to frighten Dil with that as well, even though he'd obviously, not mean to do so, he just, wanted to show off what the Reptar bars did to your tongue, now that Dil was getting older and able to notice and learn about more things in the world, and be more alert to things, now that he was nearing his first birthday in my timeline here. Anyway, I hope this chapter was okay. I did get a little bit of writer's block while putting it together, so hope it came out okay, and, be looking for more chapters, hopefully coming soon.


	7. Another Stu Pickles Disaster

Chapter 7, Another Stu Pickles Disaster

That night at bedtime, Tommy and Dil entered their bedroom, to find a new surprise where Tommy's bed once stood. Rather than his usual single bed he had been sleeping in since a short time before Dil was born, now stood what looked like one of those blue plastic inflatable pools, the kind with thick sides, and in the center was a mattress, made up with Tommy's favorite Reptar sheets. Didi shortly followed the boys into the room and noticed that Tommy's old bed had been stored away in Lou's old room across the hall, and staring over at the new contraption that replaced Tommy's old bed, Stu, who was kneeling on the opposite side of the bed, getting some last minute adjustments made, smiled up at his wife and kids when they entered the room.

"Oh, good, you're just in time." Stu said, standing up with a proud smile, ready to show off his invention.

It was somewhat of a rush job, so he only hoped it worked.

"Well, I now present, the Stu Pickles, ultra water bed." Stu announced.

Excited, Tommy ran over to the bed to check it out.

"I don't know Stu, as I mentioned back when we bought Tommy his big boy bed, I told you how I felt about water beds, them being very dangerous, and I still feel that way now." Didi commented, looking a bit unsure about this whole invention that her husband had in mind.

It was true, back right before Dil was born, she, Stu, Peter and Tommy all took a trip to the furniture store to pick out a big boy bed for Tommy. Upon getting there, Tommy ran off in the direction of the water beds, but he didn't get far, as Peter caught up to the toddler quickly, after Didi pointed out to him and Stu about how she personally felt about water beds, after hearing about some of the horror stories of the heaters in them overheating, causing fires. Unable to move as fast because of being very pregnant with Dil, who they thought would be Trixi at the time, Peter gathered up Tommy before he had a chance at checking out one of these water beds, and they went over to the section of beds where Tommy picked out the bed he has now, or at least, until tonight, when Stu hoped to change his son's life forever.

"Relax Deed, this water bed has the latest and greatest technology. It's not only a water bed, giving Tommy the latest in auqua robic relaxation, but it also incorporates massaging technology as well. And not to worry about overheating elements. I've created a safety mechanism that allows for the heater to shut off once it reaches a certain temperature." Stu explained, pointing to a set of controls that pulled out from beneath the bed on a panel, showing her what each knob did.

"This one turns on the massager." Stu explained, pointing to a green knob on the far left.

"This one turns on the heat." Stu said, pointing to a red knob in the middle.

"And this one allows you to to pump water into the bed." Stu explained, pointing to a blue button on the far right.

"And how does the bed receive water?" Didi asked.

Stu pointed to a hose that connected to the head of the bed from the wall, where he had rigged it directly to the pipes.

"This bed is directly connected to the water pipes, ensuring water directly to the bed without any issues." Stu explained.

"Well, that would explain why I had to feed the boys leftovers. I was going to make something new, but the water was turned off." Didi said, rolling her eyes at her husband.

"Sorry about that Deed. I've since turned the water back on. You should be fine to clean up from dinner, but first, check this out Champ." Stu said, gesturing to the bed, where Tommy climbed on to it and checked it out.

He had never been on a water bed before, as he checked out the mattress.

" _It's like a squishy trampaleen_." Tommy thought to himself, as he bounced up and down on the bed, giggling playfully.

"Now now Tommy, let's not jump on the bed." Didi said, but Tommy wasn't paying attention at this point.

Stu went around and turned on the massager, which started making the water bed vibrate, activating the massagers beneath the mattress, giving it the similar feeling to one of those expensive massage chairs. At this point, Tommy lay down on the bed, feeling relaxed by the vibration, as he started to calm down, looking about ready to fall asleep.

"Wow Stu, it looks like we might have a winner here." Didi said, noticing how relaxed Tommy was at this point.

She really wanted to change him out of his clothes and give him a bath, but decided against it when she saw he was growing comfortable, about ready to fall asleep. She and Stu got Dil ready for bed, and before they all knew it, everybody was in bed for the night. Little did they know that once again, another Stu Pickles disaster would be on the way.

Being in a hurry to put this invention together, Stu went to the recycling plant, and picked up an old inflatable pool to use as the frame for his masterpiece. This sadly meant that the rubber around it was old, and while he had thought about how to prevent fires from the heater, he did not think about the other potential problem with water beds, leaks. After everybody had been in bed for roughly four hours is when it happened. Tommy was rolling over in his sleep, when part of the corner of the rubber edging gave away, causing a huge whole to form, and a spoud of water to come shooting out of the whole like a fosset, getting water everywhere. This awoke both boys as Tommy and Dil screamed, when Tommy was hit in the face with some water.

"What's going on?" Dil asked, peering out of his crib at the watery mess that lay before them on the carpet.

"I don't know Dilly but we gotta get out of here." Tommy cried, as he ran over to the dresser, pulling open one of the drawers, where he pulled out his and Dil's bathing suits, and their floaties.

While he could still walk, he got over to Dil's crib, where he tossed him the screwdriver.

"Quick!" Tommy instructed, as Dil let himself out, and Tommy helped him down, careful to keep him from putting his face into the rising water.

Then, they climbed on to Tommy's bed, which was shaking violently now, no longer feeling like a nice massage, but an earthquake, and a hot earthquake at that, as the heater had come on, and felt quite hot.

"This is hot!" Dil cried.

"Hold still Dilly, we've gots to put on our swimsuits." Tommy said, changing into his and putting on his floaties.

He then helped Dil do the same, and together, they got down on the floor, where Dil got caught on part of the bed, and when Tommy got him unstuck, another whole was created, as well as the hose coming out at the head of the bed, only making the water leak even worse. That night, not only had Stu put this new bed in the room for Tommy to sleep on, but upon leaving, they closed the door, placing one of those child proof doorknob holders on to it that turns with wholes in it so adults can reach in to open the door, but it makes it harder for toddlers to escape. And while ordinarily, this would have been a good thing, as even with his clever skills of busting open playpens and cribs, this was one child proof item that Tommy hadn't figured out, it was a bit unfortunate, when they were trapped in what might soon become their first, indoor swimming pool, second if you count the one Angelica tried to create in the living room a while back with the garden hose when she thought the sky had fallen and the world had ended, leaving her and Tommy, Chuckie, Phil and Lil as the only survivors.

Luckily, Didi had to get up to go to the bathroom during the night, when she noticed some strange noises coming from Tommy and Dil's room. Curious, she headed down the hall and opened the door to find her boys dressed in their bathing suits.

"What are you boys doing in your bathing suits?" Didi asked.

Her question was quickly answered, when she stepped in the room, water coming up to her ankles and soaking her slippers.

"Stu!" Didi screamed.

By this time, the water was leaving the room, entering the hall, as Stu overheard Didi's scream, and noticing she was down the hall and no longer in bed, he awoke in a panic to see what was going on. When his feet touched the wet hallway where the carpet was becoming soaked, he saw where the water was coming from, and was less than amused.

"Uh oh." Stu said.

"What is it Stu?" Didi asked.

"Looks like I created another Stu Pickles malfunction." Stu said.

Didi let out a sigh of disappointment, as she took the boys downstairs, in hopes there was some laundry still down there that hadn't been put away, and that was dry for them to change into.

"What are we gonna do Deed?" Stu asked, upon reaching the bottom of the stairs.

Didi, standing in the doorway of the kitchen from the downstairs hall, put the boys down in the kitchen, then, with her hands on her hips, she glared at her husband.

"You mean, what are you going to do? This is your mess, you'd better have it cleaned up by tomorrow afternoon. In the meantime, I'm getting me, Tommy and Dil changed into some dry clothes, and come sunrise, we're spending the next day at my parents." Didi said, disappearing into the kitchen.

"But Deed!" Stu cried, but it was no use.

He had known his wife to get upset over his inventions before, like the time she felt neglected back at the Easter Fifi and Spike had their first litter of puppies when he became preoccupied with his errigation system, or the time they separated for a time after Tommy fell ill with the Gray Plague, all because his voice activated GPS system caused them to not make it back in time for Tommy to get vaccinated against the dreadful fatal disease. He was just lucky to survive it in the end, and to finally get a shot around the time of his second birthday. However, now, here poor Stu was left, to get this mess cleaned up in a day's time.

The disaster was so bad, nobody could sleep for the rest of the night. Tommy and Dil played with their toys downstairs, while Didi, now wearing flippers for the pool, headed into the watery bedroom to pick up anything she could take for the boys that wasn't ruined by the disasterous water bed, then packed for herself. Stu in the meantime, turned off the water for the house, saw to disconnecting the water bed entirely from the wall outlet and saw he'd not only need to fix back the pipes to their original form, but that he had a whole in the wall to patch up, and carpet to replace. Realizing all of the work he had ahead of him, he went down to the basement, where he had a good cry in frustration.

No sooner was the sun rising, when Didi had Tommy and Dil in the car, now wearing clean dry clothes, along with everybody's overnight bags in the way back.

"We're leaving." Didi called, but Stu never heard her, because he was still down in the basement.

All he heard was her tires screeching, as she left, and Spike and Spiffi barking from outside. He came upstairs to look out at the driveway and see that Didi's car was gone.

Meanwhile, after the car had headed down the road a short ways, Dil fell asleep, but so did Tommy. Ordinarily, he would stay awake when going to a destination, but thanks to his daddy's failed invention, he and Dil were both up half the night, only ruining Tommy's chances of sleep normality, once again, as they had themselves a nap in the car while Didi drove to her parents place.

Back at the Pickles residence, Stu headed to the phone in the kitchen, praying that he wouldn't awaken Peter at this early hour of six-thirty in the morning when he picked up the phone in the kitchen and dialed his number post getting Spike and Spiffi some breakfast.

At Peter's castle, he had luckily, just stepped out of the shower and was drying off with a towel before getting dressed for the day when he heard his phone ring. Worried, as it was rare for him to get calls before seven o'clock in the morning unless it was an emergency, he wrapped his towel around him, ran over to his bed, and answered the phone.

"Hello?" Peter said into the phone.

"Peter, it's me, Stu. Help!" Stu cried into the phone.

And this, ends chapter 7. So, what will happen at Boris and Minca's where Tommy and Dil are concerned? What about Stu's invention and the house? Will he get it back in one piece within a day's time? And what does he want Peter's help with? Find out, come the next chapter.

Author's Note: I've actually slept in a water bed before that one of my friends had when I was little, and they're quite nice. However, since then, I've heard of some of the horror stories with fires starting, making me somewhat afraid of them to this day. I also don't know if such combination water beds and massage vibrating beds exist now days, but I always thought about what if Stu tried to invent one, what might go wrong, and while the leaking might have been a bit exaggerated here, and usually, Stu's inventions explode, well, I wanted to not only do something different, but also create some damage that could be just as bad. Anyway, sorry for another short chapter, but we're almost halfway through this story, as I see this story totaling 15 chapters in all, and oh yeah, I made a small reference to the Rugrats episode, Bow Wow Wedding Vows, as well as my first Fan Fic, Rugrats and the Gray Plague in this chapter. Hope you all enjoyed it, regardless of its short length, and hopefully, I'll have more chapters up, sometime soon.


	8. Room Repairs and An All Nighter in the A

Author's Note: Before we get started on the next chapter, I'd like to apologize for such a late release. I got to go see my nephew on his third birthday on Monday, and post that, I returned so tired, that I didn't even make it to catch the two hour midnight marathon of Rugrats on The Splat early on Tuesday morning. If I'm too tired to stay up to catch Rugrats, then you know I need my sleep. Also, I'd like to give a thanks to all of the people thus far who have followed, favorited, and reviewed this story thus far. I appreciate all of your positive reviews, and am so pleased that you guys are enjoying this story so much, and are itching to read more. Also, I do not own any of the Disney characters, they're the property of their original creaters. With that said, let's move on, to the next chapter of this exciting, but intense, story!

Chapter 8, Room Repairs and An All Nighter in the Attic

"What's wrong Stu?" Peter asked into the phone.

"You know how yesterday I went off to invent something that would help Tommy sleep better at night?" Stu asked.

"Yes. Don't tell me the invention exploded and there's now a new whole in your kitchen, like what happened when working on the Reptar robot for Paris." Peter said.

"No, but it comes pretty close to that. Remember how my father moved out after the annomotronic Reptar incident? Well Didi left with the boys for her parents. They're coming back tomorrow, though I do believe that's only because the Lipschitz seminar is tomorrow, but if I don't fix it, I'm worried she might think of divorcing me for good and never coming back." Stu said with worry.

"I don't think she'd leave you for good, she loves you too much, even if your malfunctioning inventions do get to her, but I did ask for you to call me if you had a problem, so, what's the problem?" Peter asked.

"Well, I tried to create a combination water bed and massage bed for Tommy, only the bed fell apart during the night, causing the boys room and part of the upstairs hall to become flooded. I also need to fix the pipes back to their original form, and patch up a whole in the wall." Stu said.

"Woe! Sounds like just as big as a disaster as that kitchen floor incident. Well, just as Quazzy Moto, Hercules, Tarzan and I helped you get your kitchen floor fixed in a day's time after the Reptar incident, and I've helped you put out several fires like after the manora for the Chanukah play caught on fire that one time, and your original prototype for the Reptar wagon caused a small fire in the basement on the day of your wife's baby shower before Dil was born, I'll summon as many Disney characters together, and we'll be right over. By the time Didi and the boys return from Boris and Minca's, the house will look as good as new, and it will be like the incident never happened." Peter declared.

"Oh thank you! Thank you! Thank you!" Stu cried excitedly into the phone, relieved.

"I'll be there shortly." Peter said, hanging up the phone on his end, and going off to finish getting dressed for the day.

He and Stu both got ready for the day, and Stu was sitting at the kitchen table with his laptop, looking through email, when he heard the doorbell ring. He got up and went to answer it, hoping to find Peter, when he opened the door to find Betty there with Phil and Lil, Kira there with Chuckie and Kimi, and turning into the driveway at that point, were Laura with Jesse, and coming up the street was Celeste and Zack in their driverless van. It then hit him that with all of the craziness, Didi didn't call any of them to say they were going away for a couple of days, to not bring over the kids.

"Morning Stu, just here to drop off the pups." Betty said.

"Oh, hi Betty. Sorry to have to tell you all this, but Didi took the boys to visit her parents. They won't be back until tomorrow afternoon." Stu said.

"Oh, well, I hope they have a good time." Kira said.

"Well, I guess the pups will be coming to work with us today." Betty said.

"I'm terribly sorry about all of this. I'll have Didi let you know when she's back." Stu said.

"Thank you so much." Kira said, just as Laura and Jesse were coming up the sidewalk, and Celeste had pulled into the end of the driveway, and was starting to get Zack out of the car.

Kira and Betty quickly turned around with their kids and went to inform Laura and Celeste of the change of plans, for the kids to spend the day at the Java Lava, while Stu closed the door and went back to finish checking his email, and sending a note to Mister Mucklehoney, asking if Peter could join them at their business dinner tomorrow night. No sooner had he finished sending off the email, when the doorbell rang again. Stu shut down his laptop at this point, figuring it must be Peter and a crew of Disney characters to help him get things fixed. He went to the door and answered it to find Peter standing there, along with the seven Dwarfs from Snow White, Elsa from Frozen, Flora, Fauna, and Merryweather from Sleeping Beauty, Chip and Dale from The Rescuers, Mickey Mouse and Goofy from The Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, and Genie from Aladdin.

"Hello everybody, please, come on in." Stu said, letting Peter and the other Disney characters into the house, and leading them upstairs to where the mess was.

"What happened here?" Goofy asked, upon seeing the wet carpet, torn up water bed and whole in the wall.

"Another Stu Pickles malfunction, that's what." Peter said.

"Well, what should we fix first?" Dale asked.

"Well, I need someone small to head into the walls and fix the pipes. Oh but darn it, with everything going on, I haven't made it to Home Depot to pick up all of the supplies we'd be needing to fix everything. And replacing the carpet in here? Could take weeks!" Stu cried in frustration.

"No worry Stu Pickles, I can grant you your three wishes, if you just, say the word." Genie said.

"I wish for all of the supplies necessary to fix the pipes, and the whole in the wall." Stu said.

A bright glow came from Genie, and all of the sudden, before Stu on the floor lay all of the supplies necessary to fix the pipes and the whole, including some fresh cans of orange paint. He then handed the tools necessary to fix the pipes to Chip and Dale, who climbed through the open whole in the wall to fix the pipes.

"Now what?" Goofy asked.

"Well, do you think you and Mickey could fix the whole in the wall and paint it?" Stu asked.

"Not a problem. All we need to do is get our mousekatools. To the mousekadoor!" Mickey called, when Peter put a hand up to stop him, clearing his throat.

"Mickey, this is not your clubhouse, this is Stu's house, and I think the tools he had Genie bring to life magically will work just fine for the job, thank you." Peter said.

"Okay, we'll use those then, thanks Peter." Mickey said, as he and Goofy got to work with fixing the whole.

"What can I do to help?" Elsa asked.

"Your ice powers would really come in handy when we all get thirsty, saving us trips to the freezer downstairs." Stu said, showing Elsa to the bathroom and getting several paper cups out of the cabinet.

Sure enough, with a combination of water once the pipes were fixed, and her ice powers, she'd be in charge of making everybody some ice water to drink during breaks. All of the rest of that day, all of the characters worked vigorously, as the seven dwarfs moved all of the furniture out of the room and dried off anything that was still wet, Peter and Stu saw to washing the sheets that were on the destroyed water bed and throwing out the disasterous invention, Chip and Dale fixed the pipes, and Mickey and Goofy fixed the whole in the wall, and saw to painting it. Unfortunately, they forgot to use drip cloths, and seeing that Goofy could get clumbsy at points, much of the orange paint ended up on the floor. At least there was enough left to fix the spot on the wall that needed painting, and by sunset, everybody had done their jobs at this point. Unfortunately, even though they had fixed the pipes, Chip and Dale were trapped inside the wall.

"Uh oh Dale, we need somebody to let us out." Chip said.

"Somebody! Help!" A tiny voice called from inside one of the walls.

Noticing their voices, Stu turned and recognized them.

"Oh my gosh! Chip and Dale are trapped!" Stu called.

"I'll take care of this, with Erebus, I can cut a whole in the wall and rescue them." Peter said.

"But Peter, Mickey and Goofy just finished fixing the wall, don't go breaking it again." Stu said.

"You do still have two wishes left." Genie said.

"Okay, before we all take one last water break with Elsa's famous ice water and I send everybody home for the night, I wish for Chip and Dale to be rescued from inside the walls of my house." Stu said.

Genie snapped his fingers, and all of the sudden, Chip and Dale were standing right before everybody.

"Thank you for rescuing us Genie." Dale said.

"No no, thank Stu, he made the wish." Genie replied.

"Okay everybody, come over tomorrow morning, and we'll finish the job." Stu said, as everybody headed downstairs with glasses of ice water, and saw to leaving.

Exhausted, Stu went and found something in the fridge he could quickly heat up for dinner, ate it while checking email again, pleased to see a response from Mister Mucklehoney stating that Peter was welcome to come to dinner, he'd be interested to meet him and see what he has to offer, and turned in early for the night.

Meanwhile, Didi, Tommy, and Dil all had a very different day. They drove to her parents place, where Tommy and Dil took a nap in the car on the way, after being awake half the night before, thanks to the water incident. Soon, she pulled into her parents driveway, and came around to wake up the kids and get everybody out of the car.

"Tommy, Dil, wake up sweeties, we're here." Didi said, unstrapping them from their car seats, as they opened their eyes, yawned and stretched.

Dil had never been to his grandparents place before, and Tommy hadn't been here since they celebrated Passover before Dil was born, so he was glad to come back. He was also pleased to come back once Dil was closer to becoming a big baby, being able to show him the really fun toys in the attic. Once everybody was out of the car, Didi saw to heading up to the house, where she rang the doorbell, and her mother answered the door.

"Didilla, what a surprise! I didn't expect to see you here. Oh, and you brought the little dumplings." Minca said, reaching in and giving her grandsons a hug.

"My, you both have grown so much since I last saw you." Minca cried.

"I hope you don't mind mom, Stu's having another incident with one of his, less than successful inventions, and I just, needed to get away. Of course, we can only stay for one night, as I have something to go to tomorrow." Didi said, heading into the living room.

"That is fine, though Boris has a terrible stomach flu." Minca said.

"Oh dear, sorry about dad, but we'll do our best to keep the kids away from him." Didi said, heading into the kitchen, where she put down their bags and took a seat at the table.

Tommy and Dil were placed into the playpen in the living room by their grandmother, while she went off to fix lunch. Dil looked around, noticing how different things looked here than back home. He also noticed a lack of toys in the playpen.

"What are we gonna play with Tommy?" Dil asked his older brother.

"Well, we can go up to the attic, they have lots of great toys up there." Tommy said, unlatching the playpen with his screwdriver and heading off into the living room, Dil crawling behind him.

Unfortunately, the two toddlers didn't get far when Didi called them for lunch.

"Lunch time kids." Didi called.

The boys headed into the kitchen, as they were growing hungry, and Minca placed them into two seats at the table, with bowls of minastroni soup and Didi got out the sippy cups of red juice she had packed for them before they left, along with individual packages of Reptar crackers.

"I'd better go check on Boris, and see if he needs anything." Minca said, leaving her daughter and grandsons to eat their lunch and heading upstairs to check on her husband, who was coming back from the bathroom once again.

"How are you doing sweetheart?" Minca asked.

"This bug is going to be the end of me. Just threw up a third time. Luckily the diarrhea hasn't come yet." Boris said, heading back to bed.

"Well, Didilla is visiting with Tommy and Dil." Minca said, tucking her husband into bed.

"Well just keep them out of here. I don't wish to get any of them sick." Boris said.

"Not a problem sweetheart." Minca said, blowing her husband a kiss and heading back downstairs to eat her lunch.

After lunch, she and Didi got busy with a jigsaw puzzle at the kitchen table, while Tommy and Dil were back in the playpen again. Ordinarily Didi would have put them down for a nap at this point, only because they had already taken a nap in the car on the way over, she didn't do that, hoping they would go to sleep that night. Little did anybody know that regardless, the sleep schedule would continue to remain messed up, as Tommy and Dil had quite the long afternoon and night ahead of them. Once Tommy noticed his mommy and grandmother were not looking, he turned to his brother.

"Okay Dilly, let's go upstairs." Tommy said, unlatching the playpen a second time that day, and he and his brother crawled through the living room and up the stairs.

They were in the hall, about to approach the door that lead up the stairs to the attic, when they heard some noises coming from one of the nearby bedrooms.

"What's that Tommy?" Dil asked.

The noise stopped, and then, the boys heard a loud moan that sounded a lot like grandpa Boris.

"That sounds like grandpa Boris! I wonder if something's wrong. We'd better go check." Tommy said, heading in the direction of the noise, his younger brother crawling close behind.

Soon, they were in the bedroom, where their sick grandfather lay on his bed. The poor man had not only had a double whammy, but he failed to make it to the bathroom in time, throwing up all over the bed, as well as having a diarrhea accident in his pants.

"I think grandpa had a oopsy." Dil said.

"I think you're right Dilly, and I smell poopies too." Tommy said.

"It wasn't me." Dil said, holding his nose.

Tommy inched closer to his grandpa, and noticed it was coming from him.

"What do we do now?" Dil asked.

"Do what babies do best at a time like this." Tommy said, as he and Dil started to cry.

"Oy vay, kinderlots, please, your grandpa is not feeling well." Boris cried, stepping out of bed, as he dizzily walked over to his crying grandsons and picked them up to give them a hug.

"Come on you two, let's go back downstairs." Boris said, but his balance was way off, having to put the boys down and sit back down on the bed, being too dizzy to move.

"Please, go back downstairs, I don't want you to catch this." Boris protested.

Dil turned to Tommy.

"Maybe we can help him." Dil suggested.

"That's a great idea Dil. You stay here with grandpa, I'll be right back." Tommy said, heading back downstairs, where he grabbed their diaper bags and brought them back upstairs.

Soon, the boys had operation, take care of grandpa Boris, under way. First, using the baby wipes in the bag, they saw to cleaning up the vomit off of the sheets. After that, Boris lay back down, only before he did that, he took off his pajama pants he was wearing, that were full of diarrhea.

"Come on Dilly, I think grandpa needs to wear a diapie for a while. Now hold still grandpa." Tommy said, even though to Boris, it sounded like baby babble, he felt too sick and weak to move as it was.

"What are you boys doing?" Boris asked, as he felt little hands pull down his underpants he had changed into, and Tommy applying baby powder to his bottom.

Then, Dil got out one of his brother's clean diapers, as they were slightly bigger, and Tommy tried applying the diaper to his grandpa, only it was too small, ripping in half as they tried to fascon it shut.

"Boys, I am too big for diapers. I just want to sleep. Please, just, leave me alone!" Boris cried, as tears started streaming down his face.

Then, remembering how they used a towel when Tommy's daddy turned back into a baby after falling off the roof that one time, he went to the bathroom where there was luckily, a towel draped over the side of the tub. He brought it back and applied it to his grandpa, the same way it was applied to Stuie way back when. Meanwhile, Dil fetched a pacifier out of his diaper bag and placed it into Boris's mouth to stop him from crying.

"You never toldid me Tommy that our grandpa Boris was the biggerest baby in the whole wide world, neat!" Dil exclaimed, as Boris closed his eyes and fell asleep, the pacifier still in his mouth.

Feeling sleepy again, Tommy curled up on the bed next to his grandpa, and decided to curl up for a nap too. Dil debated going back downstairs to play, but he then thought about it, and found the nap sounded nice. He, too, curled up on the opposite side of his grandpa, where while there was still a slight spot of vomit they missed, along with a trail of baby powder, he didn't care, as he made himself comfortable near the icky piles, and fell asleep too.

Back downstairs, Didi and Minca had finished their puzzle, when they noticed how quiet it was.

"I ought to go check on Boris again." Minca said.

"I'll help." Didi said, as the two ladies headed upstairs, never noticing that Tommy and Dil had escaped the playpen.

However, when they entered the bedroom to find Boris, Tommy, and Dil all curled up together taking a nap, they couldn't help but take some pictures of the cute sleeping trio. They couldn't understand why Boris was sucking on a pacifier and wearing a towel instead of underwear, but they weren't going to worry about it right then, as they left to let them finish their nap.

Come supper time, Didi awoke everybody, and had the three of them take a bath, while Minca put fresh sheets on the bed. Boris, now in fresh adult clothes, and Tommy and Dil, now wearing the pajamas Didi had packed for them, all headed down to the kitchen for dinner, where Minca heated up some stroganoff from the night before, and Boris had some chicken bross and some port, as wine is a popular remedy to help cure stomach bugs. After dinner, Boris took some Pepto Bizmal in hopes that it would help him get through the night, and soon, everybody was in bed, as Didi and Tommy curled up in bed together in her old room, sleeping where Angelica slept during the Toys in the Attic episode, while Dil used the crib that Tommy used during that same episode. However, while Boris, Minca, and Didi more or less, fell asleep immediately upon hitting the pillow, this was not the case for the two youngest members of the bunch, as Dil sat up in his crib, peering out over at his sleeping mother across the way, and Tommy quietly got out of bed and tip towed over to his brother's crib.

"Are you ready to go now?" Tommy whispered.

"Where?" Dil cried loudly.

Tommy hushed him, while handing him the screwdriver to get out.

"The attic, member?" Tommy said.

Dil then remembered where they were headed earlier, when they ended up having to take care of their sick baby grandpa Boris, completely dropping that plan until later. And while Tommy might have been able to catch Nigel Thornberry that evening, there was no possible way to watch it here, as he recalled Angelica saying something about them not having cable, nor had he ever watched TV at their place before. Besides, it wasn't everyday that he got to go play with the toys in his grandparents attic, it sounded like a bazillion times more fun than watching TV. So together, he and Dil quietly crawled out of the bedroom, and up the stairs to the attic.

They got there and Tommy flipped on the light. The boys looked around to see several chairs scattered about, some wine glasses, an old record player,and off to another corner near some boxes sat two boxes piled high with toys. Not wanting any of the toys to escape, Dil closed the door behind him, not realizing what would happen later, then crawled over to where Tommy was headed, as he walked in the direction of the two boxes. Then, Tommy knocked over one of the boxes, spilling its contents out on to the attic floor, and the next thing the boys knew, they were having lots of fun with all of the toys.

In fact, they had fun rolling the ball to one another, playing with some old blocks, and Dil even found an old wooden raddle that looked like a pink heart that still worked, that before they knew it, morning had arrived, as some light started to stream in through a tiny window in the attic.

"Uh oh." Tommy said, tipping the cardboard box upright.

"What's wrong?" Dil asked.

"Quickly Dilly, we gotta pick up this mess." Tommy said, tossing blocks and other assorted items back into the box.

"But I don't wanna pick up." Dil wined, starting to cry, as he ran over to the other box they had never touched of toys, and knocking it over, scattering its contents everywhere, as well as knocking over the box Tommy was just tossing toys into, knocking them everywhere.

"Dil!" Tommy yelled in an irritated tone of voice.

"What?" Dil wined, picking up an old teddy bear he had found, and hugging it close.

"I'm getting hungry, and mommy and our grandpa Boris and grandma Minca are probably wondering where we are." Tommy said.

Just then, Dil's stomach roared loudly.

"I'm hungry too, come on Tommy, let's get out of here." Dil said, crawling through the mess of toys, over to the closed attic door.

Tommy ran over there after him, since he was tall enough now to reach the doorknob. Unfortunately, he had forgotten that this particular door wouldn't open from the inside, and that it took Peter's use of Erebus to get it open after they were tired of listening to Boris tell stories at Passover. Sure enough, Tommy tried turning the doorknob to open it, but nothing happened. He then turned back to his brother, but not wanting to worry him, he struck up an idea.

"Okay Dilly, you win, we'll play some more." Tommy said, sitting on the floor and building a new block tower with the blocks they had played with earlier.

Meanwhile, downstairs, Didi awoke, put on her glasses, and noticed that Tommy and Dil weren't in bed. Boris and Minca had gotten up a short while before she did, and she could smell the aroma of tea coming from downstairs, so perhaps Minca had gotten the boys up. She went downstairs and checked, as she saw her parents sitting at the kitchen table, but didn't see the kids anywhere.

"Morning mom, morning dad. How are you feeling dad? And where are the kids? When I awoke, Tommy and Dil were missing!" Didi cried in a panic.

"Now now darling, don't worry, I'm sure the dumplings are around here somewhere." Minca said.

"We don't have any dumplings. Besides, I still don't think my stomach is quite ready for dumplings yet." Boris said.

"Not those dumplings, the children! Come on, we'd better turn this house upside down and find them." Minca said, as the three adults got up from the kitchen table, and started searching everywhere.

They looked all over the living room, bedrooms, and even the bathroom, and didn't find them anywhere. And luckily this time, the front door was closed and locked, but just to be sure, Minca went over to the door, relieved that it had never been touched. Soon, all three adults stood at the bottom of the stairs on the first level, unsure of where to look next.

"Oh, where could they be?" Didi cried.

"I think I know, follow me." Boris said, heading up the stairs, his wife and daughter following behind him.

They headed down to the attic door, which the door leading up the stairs was open, but the door at the top was closed. They did as they climbed the stairs, hear some baby babble and toys being played with. And sure enough, when Boris reached the top of the stairs and opened the door, he found his grandsons, happily playing with toys. Upon hearing the door to the attic open, Tommy and Dil looked up from their playing to see their grandpa standing before them.

"Grandpa came to save us, and he's not a baby-baby no more!" Dil cried.

"You're right Dilly, he's all better." Tommy said happily, as he and Dil giggled happily, and crawled over to hug their grandfather.

"I'm covered in kinderlots!" Boris cried, picking up his grandsons and taking them back downstairs, where Minca and Didi made them some breakfast.

Later, Boris went back upstairs, and while he was still not feeling wonderful from the stomach bug, he was feeling better, and thought that now with two grandkids, maybe it was time, to get those old toys out of the attic, and put them into the playpen downstairs in the living room. And that's exactly what he did.

Meanwhile, back at the Pickles house, Stu was awake early, and luckily, Peter and the Disney characters who came the previous day arrived around eight that morning to finish up fixing Tommy and Dil's room, along with the carpet in the upstairs hall. Before they went up though, Stu had Peter sit down with him at the table for a cup of coffee in Stu's case, and a cup of tea in Peter's case, to discuss with him about what he heard back from Mister Mucklehoney.

"Peter, I heard back from Mister Mucklehoney, and he'd love for you to come to dinner with us tonight." Stu said.

"Great! I'll see if Frollo can bring over several of my inventions for me to show off at the dinner tonight." Peter said, getting out his iPhone and sending General Frollo E. Lee a text right quick, as he was watching over things at Peter's castle until he returned later.

"Great. Now, for us to get to work on finishing that room before Didi returns later on today with the kids." Stu said, finishing his coffee and leading everybody back upstairs.

"Well Stu, this carpet in the hall is still a mess. And, I'm afraid I may have turned part of the carpet in the bedroom orange. Sorry about that." Goofy said apologetically.

"AAAHHH!" Stu screamed, realizing they still had carpet to replace.

"Stu, calm down. You still have one wish left." Genie said.

"Then, I wish for some new carpet in my upstairs hall and boys bedroom." Stu said.

"Yeah, but I think it should be pink carpet." Flora said, waving her wand just as Genie performed his magic, granting Stu's third and final wish.

Before they knew it, the upstairs hall had mostly its original blue carpet, with a section of pink carpet outside of Tommy and Dil's bedroom door, and then, everybody peered into the repaired room to find the orange walls with a pink carpet.

"Hmmm, I don't know about this." Stu said.

"Yeah, that was very nice Flora, but this room is for two little boys, not a little girl." Peter said.

"Awe, but pink is such a beautiful color." Flora said.

"I agree with Peter, I think blue is better." Maryweather said.

"Now now Flora and Merryweather, let's not fight over the color of the carpet, like you did with Princess Araura's dress at the end of the movie." Peter said.

"You're right, we'll leave the pink carpet." Flora said.

"But I think it would look better if the walls were white, not orange." Fauna said, waving her magic wand, turning the walls in Tommy and Dil's room white.

While this was all going on, Stu had received a phone call. He ran into the master bedroom to answer it.

"Hello?" Stu said into the phone.

"Stu, it's me. How's the cleanup going along?" Didi asked on the other side of the phone.

"Fine Deed." Stu replied.

"Good, because Tommy and Dil are finishing their breakfast right now and we'll be leaving my parents place shortly. I expect us back shortly after lunch time. And oh yes, don't forget, tonight, you and I both have places to go, so I'm asking you to please line up a sitter for the kids. I'd let them stay with my parents an extra night, but my father is still somewhat under the weather, and after our boys getting trapped in their attic all night last night, it might be best, that I bring them home." Didi said.

"Sure thing Deed, I'll take care of it." Stu said, hanging up the phone and running back to see how Peter and the Disney characters were doing.

Upon seeing the pink carpet in the hallway, Stu screamed again.

"What? How?" Stu said, as he peered into the boys room to see the walls were now white.

"Who painted the walls white?" Stu asked angrily.

"Blame Flora, Fauna, and Maryweather for this one." Peter said.

"Well fix it! Make the carpet blue and put the walls back to the orange color they were originally." Stu said.

"Okay, will do." Maryweather said, raising her wand and turning the carpet in the hall and Tommy and Dil's room back to the blue it was originally, and returning the walls in the bedroom back to their original orange color.

"So what's the story?" Peter asked.

"The phone call was Didi. She'll be home with the boys early this afternoon. And oh yes, Didi asked for me to line up a sitter, since I have my meeting tonight and Didi is going to that Lipschitz seminar thing." Stu said.

"I'd gladly babysit, except, I'm going with you to the dinner." Peter said.

"Oh." Stu moaned, placing his head in his hands in frustration.

"Oh cheer up Stu, I'm sure Taffy or your parents could babysit." Peter said.

"You're right Peter, I'll go make some more phone calls. Meanwhile, have the Disney characters help you put the furniture back in Tommy and Dil's room, and remake Tommy's bed with the sheets that were stripped from my invention. They're his favorite pair of Reptar sheets. They're still in the dryer." Stu said.

"Okay, will do." Peter said, as he went to round up the seven dwarfs to have them get started.

"Okay Happy, Grumpy, Sneezy, Sleepy, Dopy, Dock, and Bashful, start moving the furniture back into Tommy and Dil's room. And if Fauna, Flora, and Merryweather could remake the bed and rehang the curtins the mortal way, that would also be appreciated. I'll be right back with the sheets from the dryer." Peter said, as he headed downstairs and everybody got to work.

"Why do we gotta do that?" Grumpy yelled angrily from the top of the stairs.

"Because as king of the Confederacy, and Stu's good friend, I said so." Peter called back as he reached the bottom step, and headed in the direction of the laundry room to get the sheets out of the dryer.

The dwarfs headed into Lou's old bedroom, where all of the furniture was stashed, and began to sing.

"Hi ho, hi ho, let's put the furniture back where it goes." The dwarfs sang as a parody of their song in Snow White of the same title, changing some of the lyrics slightly, as they started moving things back to where they were originally.

Dopy tried to turn the dresser upside down, causing all of the drawers to come open, making a mess of Tommy and Dil's clothes all over the floor. Mickey Mouse, Chip, and Dale came along, and helped put everything back into the drawers once the dresser was put back into place. All of this time while putting furniture back, Sneezy was sneezing clouds of dust, and once the beds were put back, not only did the three fairies put back up the curtins and remake Tommy's bed with his Reptar sheets and dark purple blanket, Elsa made up Dil's crib with fresh sheets too, some Goober crib sheets she found in the bathroom on the shelves of sheets. While all of this was going on, Stu left voice messages on Taffy's voicemail, as she was at school, and the answering machine at Lou's apartment, as for some odd reason, they weren't around on this particular morning to answer the phone either.

Before they all knew it, the room was back to the way it was before Stu started inventing things, and he even went to his room and pulled out the trains and roundhouse, putting them back in Tommy and Dil's room.

"There we go, as I bet ya Tommy and Dil might wanna play trains when they get back." Stu said, putting the box of track, bucket of trains, and roundhouse back in their spot next to the bedroom door in the boys' room.

"Nice job everyone, now, how about we see to sending all of you guys home, as Stu and I have some important business to attend to in order to get ready for tonight." Peter said.

"Okey dokey." Goofy said.

"Thanks for all of your help everyone." Stu said.

"Not a problem Stu, it was our pleasure." Elsa said, handing Stu one last glass of ice water.

"Elsa, thanks for the ice cubes, but would you mind making it crushed ice this time please?" Stu asked.

"No problem." Elsa said, waving her fingers over the top of the glass, as the ice cubes turned into crushed ice right before Stu's eyes.

"Thank you Elsa." Stu said, taking a sip of his ice water, just as Peter went into the boys' bedroom to find Sleepy sleeping in Tommy's bed.

"Wwake up Sleepy, it's time to go home." Peter called.

The dwarf yawned and stretched, sitting up in Tommy's bed.

"Oh, okay, sorry about that." Sleepy said in between yawns, as he stood up and joined the other dwarfs, as everybody headed downstairs, out the front door, and back into the world of Disney.

Once the characters were gone, Peter turned his back to the front door and faced Stu, who was now at the bottom of the stairs.

"So, have you heard from Taffy or your father?" Peter asked.

"Nope, still waiting for them to return my phone calls." Stu replied.

"Well, I haven't heard from Frollo. I'm gonna run home and grab up my inventions. I'll be back later on this afternoon." Peter said, letting himself out.

"Thank you so much." Stu said, shaking Peter's hand.

"Not a problem Stu, I was happy to help." Peter said, leaving the Pickles residence.

Meanwhile, Celeste had part of the day off from work, and along with calling Stu, Didi gave all of the other kids parents a call, letting them know that she and Tommy and Dil would be back later on in the afternoon, if they wanted to bring their kids over for a little while. So that morning, she took everybody to the park, where Zack showed the other toddlers the items he kept stored away in his diapers, as Phil was curious if he did such a thing.

"And this, is my lucky marble. I think it use to belong to my daddy, cuz I founded it right before moving in with my aunty." Zack explained, holding up a shiny white large marble in his left hand.

"Oooh!" Kimi, Chuckie, Phil, Lil and Jesse all cried in unison.

"That's beautiful Zachary!" Kimi cried.

"Thank you Kimi." Zack said, placing the marble back into his diaper for safe keeping.

Of course, he also kept a flashlight, a fold up telescope, and several other items stashed in there, making it difficult to always ensure that everything would remain secure. They went on to play at the park the rest of the morning, including playing a game of Follow the Leader, where Jesse was the leader, and he led them through the same tunnel the gang went into during The Braveliest Baby episode. While in the tunnel, he had them all do summersalts, and when Zack did his, unknown to him, his lucky marble fell out of his diaper. It wasn't until later when they were back in Celeste's driverless van when Zack reached into his diaper to have some chips for a snack, that he noticed his marble was missing.

"Guys, my lucky marble is gone!" Zack cried.

"Don't worry Zachary, I'm sure it's around here somewhere." Kimi said with a smile.

"You're right, I'm sure when we get to Tommy's, we can empty out my diapie and get a better look for it." Zack said.

They got to Tommy and Dil's place before Didi got back, but Celeste had to be at work for the afternoon for a couple of hours, and get there for one o'clock, so she dropped all of the kids off with Stu, where he had them go play out in the backyard, since he was busy getting things ready for his business dinner, and didn't want them in the way.

"You kids play out here, Peter will be back in a short while, and I'll be inside if you need anything. Also, Tommy and Dil should be home soon too." Stu said, placing the kids out into the backyard.

They all sat down in the grass and Zack emptied out thecontents of his diaper. Sadly though, he didn't find his marble anywhere.

"Maybe we can go back to the park tomorrow with Tommy and Dil." Jesse said.

"And I bet Tommy can find it. That is, if he's not sleeping again." Chuckie said.

"Yeah, I just hope nobody else finds it first and decides to keep it." Zack said.

"Don't worry Zachary, I'm sure we'll find it." Kimi replied with a smile.

Zack turned to her and smiled, feeling slightly better that he might eventually get it back after all.

Meanwhile, after breakfast was finished, Didi got everything packed, and got Tommy and Dil dressed, packed up the car, and headed for home. However, while on the way to their grandparents, Tommy and Dil had a nap, on the way back, they were still too wide awake from eating breakfast and playing all night in the attic, that on the ride home, they decided to play what they called, the car game.

"I know Dilly, I'll show you how to play the car game." Tommy suggested.

"How do you play that?" Dil asked.

"Well, we each pick a color." Tommy said.

"I pick red." Dil said.

"Then I pick blue. Now, we've gots to look out our windows, and spot all cars we see of that color." Tommy instructed.

"Okay." Dil said.

"That one!" Dil cried, as a blue car drove past.

"Dil, that's my car. You're spose to be looking for the red ones, member?" Tommy reminded him.

"Oh yeah." Dil said.

However, he was still learning, and as a baby slash toddler, he was slow to pick up on things, getting them mixed up. While Tommy spotted the blue cars like he was suppose to, Dil kept pointing out the same cars, rather than any red ones on the road, much to Tommy's annoyance. Eventually, Tommy decided to point out a red car on the road.

"That one!" Tommy said, pointing to a red car driving by.

"Hey! That's mine!" Dil cried.

Tommy just let out a reluctant sigh, as their mommy finally turned on their street, and they were nearly home. Shortly after, she turned into the driveway, when both, Tommy and Dil yawned, starting to grow sleepy. However, when she took the boys inside, Stu let her know that the gang had dropped off their kids and they were in the backyard. Dil however had fallen asleep in Didi's arms, but Tommy, determined to not take a nap at this point, after pulling another all nighter, was determined to turn his sleeping schedule around. Little did he know that today's game to stay awake, would once again, cause him to backfire.

And what will happen next? And will Taffy or Lou be able to watch the kids while Stu and Didi are out for the evening? Find out, come the next chapter!

Author's Note: Sorry for taking so long to get this chapter up as well. I ended up with a telephone call while in the middle of writing it, and was on the phone with my friend who called longer than I anticipated. No matter, I hope you all enjoyed this chapter, and, I hope to have the next chapter up hopefully sometime soon.


	9. Tommy Snaps

Author's Note: I forgot to mention at the end of the previous chapter that the part about Tommy and Dil going off to play in Boris and Minca's attic will be revisited at a point in DemonAloisTrancy's ongoing story, Tommy Pickles: The Terrible Twos, when she gets to that story within the story. However, it will play out very differently from how it played out within mine, even though both, what I did, and what she'll be doing, were my ideas. Just thought I'd cover that, in the event somebody were to check out my story after that story within DemonAloisTrancy's story is released, which at this time, there's no telling when that will be, as she hasn't released a new chapter in that story in a great while for various reasons, writer's block being amongst them. I meant to put this at the end of the last chapter, but with receiving that phone call while writing it, I guess, I got somewhat distracted and lost my train of thought. Also, before we begin this chapter, I should warn you that we're approaching some darkness ahead in the story, and possibly some out of characterization at points, just, as an F Y I. With that out of the way, let's move on to the next chapter of this story here.

Chapter 9, Tommy Snaps

Tommy was doing just fine up to this point, that is, until he was put into the backyard with all of his friends.

"Now you play out here with your little friends sweetie while I go put Dil down for his nap." Didi said, giving Tommy a kiss on the forehead and sending him out to the backyard.

Once she closed the door behind her and headed off to put Dil, who was still sleeping in her arms down in his crib upstairs for a nap, Tommy approached his friends who were all playing in the sandbox at this point.

"Hi guys." Tommy greeted, still standing outside of the ssandbox.

"Hi Tommy." Chuckie greeted back.

"We're digging wholes, wanna join us?" Lil asked.

Tommy thought about it for a minute, as the fatigue was really starting to settle in. Sure, under normal circumstances he'd enjoy playing in the sandbox, a fun, sit down activity, but with how he was feeling at the moment, he knew if he sat down for too long, he might be more likely to fall asleep, ruining an opportunity to play with his friends. Glancing around the yard, he spotted the Reptar wagon over near the back of the wall that made up the back of the garage, and got a brilliant idea of a new game to play.

"Come on you guys, let's go play with Reptar." Tommy said, running over to the Reptar wagon.

The other toddlers all got out of the sandbox and came over to where Tommy was, to see what he had in mind.

"You wanna go for a ride in the Reptar wagon Tommy?" Chuckie asked.

"No, I gots a new idea of something we can do with it. You know how Reptar is always knocking down buildings and stuff to save peoples from the aliums and stuff? Well, using the Reptar wagon as Reptar, and pretending the house is a giant city, we can play out that scene from Reptar 2010." Tommy suggested.

"I don't know Tommy, that doesn't sound like such a good idea. What if you break the wagon, or the house." Chuckie said.

"Come on Chuckie, we're just playing. We're not gonna hurt nothing, you'll see." Tommy said, grabbing on the string like handle on the front of the wagon, and rolling it towards the house.

"I don't know about this." Chuckie muttered, as he and all of the other toddlers stood back, watching Tommy take his turn with the wagon.

There he was, running the wagon into the house, making the front of the wagon, which was Reptar's face, jam into the wall. In Tommy's imagination, he saw Reptar knocking down buildings, trying to get into the city to save everybody from the aliens and giant cockroaches. However, while Tommy thought this was a fun game, from inside the house, it sounded like a great deal of noise to the adults. While the babies were out in the backyard playing distructive Reptar, Peter had returned with a suitcase full of his inventions he was planning to show Mister Mucklehoney at the dinner that evening.

"Peter! Great to see you back! So did you have to put together that suitcase?" Stu asked, leading Peter into the kitchen and placing the suitcase down near the door to the living room so they wouldn't forget it.

"No, Frollo had it all ready to go, but he got a call from Italy that he had to take, keeping him tied up." Peter said, taking a seat at the kitchen table where Didi was looking at one of her Lipschitz books and writing down some questions she might want to ask him at the questions and answers session post his seminar.

"Hi Didi, welcome home. How was the trip to your parents?" Peter asked.

Didi looked up from her book and smiled at him.

"Hello Peter, it was lovely! Though my father is a bit under the weather with that stomach flu that's been going around. I just hope Tommy and Dil didn't catch it." Didi said.

"Oh Didi, I wouldn't worry. I'm sure they'll be just…" Before Peter could finish his sentence, a loud crash from outside startled him.

"What was that?" Peter asked.

"What?" Stu asked.

Just then the noise sounded again.

"Oh my gosh! It sounds like something is hitting into the house! I'll just go outside and have a look. You two stay here." Stu said, heading out into the backyard where he saw Tommy running the Reptar wagon into the house.

"Tommy! What are you doing!" Stu said, coming up to his son and taking the Reptar wagon away from him.

"Tommy, we do not run our ride in toys into the house." Stu said, looking at where he had run the Reptar into the house to see a dent in the wall.

"And now, we have another wall to fix. I'm sorry, but Reptar is going to time out. You can have him back later." Stu said, taking the Reptar wagon out of the yard and unknown to the toddlers at this point, around the side of the house and into the garage.

Tired and upset by this course of actions, Tommy slumped down in the grass and started to cry. Out in the garage, Stu put the Reptar wagon into a corner, but forgot to close the garage door when heading back inside.

"What was all of the noise?" Didi asked upon seeing Stu return to the kitchen table.

"Tommy, running the Reptar wagon into the house. I put it in time out in the garage, to teach him that we do not play with our toys in that matter." Stu said.

"Well, Lipschitz does say that as parents, we do need to set limits, and someone Tommy's age is very tended to challenge these limits. If he or she does things that the parents don't approve of, he or she should face the consiquences." Didi read aloud from her Two-Year-Old Terrors Lipschitz book that she was looking through at that very moment, seeing that was going to be the subject of the seminar.

"Look, Peter and I have to get things ready for our business dinner tonight." Stu said, getting up from the table, Peter following behind him where they headed down to the basement to get together things Stu wanted to take to the dinner.

Outside, Zack approached Tommy.

"Come on Tommy, are you going to sit there and cry, or are you going to do something about this? I mean, you said it yourself, you were only playing. Your daddy shouldn't have taken Reptar away like that. If I were you, I'd be going and saving Reptar." Zack said.

Tommy wiped the tears away from his eyes and stared at his friend.

"You're right, sitting here crying doesn't fix nothing. I'm gonna save Reptar if it's the lastest thing I never do, cuz taking Reptar away from me was just, not, fair!" Tommy said, standing up and glancing around the yard.

He saw which direction his daddy took the Reptar wagon, and headed that way, though not without Chuckie coming towards him. It then hit him that his daddy must have taken it out of the yard via the gate that would lead him to the driveway in front. Tommy made a run for the gate, but Chuckie snuck past him and blocked his path.

"Come on Chuckie, I need to open the gate so we can rescue Reptar." Tommy said.

"Tommy, no. You know why Reptar was taken away. He was taken from you. I told you that playing with the wagon in that fashion wasn't such a good idea, but you didn't listen." Chuckie said.

"And you're gonna tell me that saving him isn't such a good idea neither. Like every other time you've turned my ideas down." Tommy said angrily, not up for this.

By this time, he was not only tired and angry, but a headache was coming on, and the urge to teethe, as he was getting more teeth. The combination of all of this made Tommy do the unthinkable at that moment. He reached in, and bit Chuckie's right arm.

"Outch!" Chuckie cried, bursting into tears and running off towards the house.

Jesse, Phil, Lil, Zack and Kimi all gasp as they were standing behind Tommy and saw the whole thing.

"I'm surprised at you Tommy." Kimi said.

The others nodded their heads in agreement.

"I'm going to save Reptar, anyone who don't think my idea's a bad one is welcome to come along." Tommy said.

Everyone left in the yard shook their heads no.

"All right then, looks like I'll be saving Reptar all by myself." Tommy said, putting a raddle he had in his pocket up around the lock of the gate to undo it, just like in the Destination, Moon episode, and heading out of the backyard.

Tommy headed around the side of the house and into the front yard, where he found the garage open. He went inside the garage, which in his imagination, was a cave, and in his imagination, he spotted Reptar behind a huge bolder, which in reality, he was on the opposite side of the car parked in the garage.

"Don't worry Reptar, I'll save you." Tommy said, running for the Reptar wagon, but with where it was placed, he had a hard time pulling it out all by himself.

He then pulled really hard on the handle, until he got the wagon to move, causing it to knock into several boxes, which fell over. Hearing the loud crash from inside alerted Didi to come out to the garage and see what was going on.

"Tommy? How did you get out here? And sorry, but your Reptar wagon is still timed out." Didi said, picking up Tommy, who started yelling and screaming at the top of his lungs.

"I think you need to go to your room for a while." Didi said, carrying the screaming purple haired two-year-old toddler inside, through the kitchen and up the stairs to his room.

Not realizing that Dil was still taking a nap, Tommy's screaming woke his brother, who also started crying. Didi put Tommy down on his bed, then went over to Dil's crib, where she picked him up and comforted him.

"Come on sweetie, your brother needs to have a time out." Didi said, carrying her youngest son downstairs, just as Stu and Peter came up from the basement.

Didi closed the bedroom door behind her to Tommy and Dil's room, and at this point, Tommy stopped crying, when he slumped back against his pillows on his bed, and glanced over to his left to find his stuffed Reptar doll sitting nearby on the bed. He picked it up and stared down into Reptar's face, feeling just awful.

"Oh no Reptar, what have I done? I tried to save you, and mommy stopped me. And as for getting you trapped in the firstest place, I didn't mean to, I was only playing. I'm so sorry. And worstest of all, I hurted Chuckie. Oh why can't I get back to normen? Why do I stay up all night? Cuz I wanna be a growed up and watch Nigel Strawberry on TV. Well if being a growed up means mommy and daddy take my stuff away when I'm only playing, then, I'd rather be a baby-baby. Yeah, before I turndid two, they might get mad, but except for Henry and some lipstick, they never tooked stuff away from me." Tommy said to his toy, as he started to cry again, feeling just awful about everything that had happened as of late.

Worst of all, as he lay there, crying his eyes out over all of the pain and frustration he felt as of late, he ended up crying himself to sleep.

Meanwhile, back downstairs, when Stu and Peter came up from the basement, they heard Chuckie crying outside. Peter went out back to see what was going on. He found Chuckie covering the spot on his arm where Tommy bit him. Worried, he went over to him to see what was wrong.

"Chuckie, what's the matter?" Peter asked.

Chuckie slowly removed his hand from the bite and showed it to Peter.

"T't'Tommy, bi'bi'bit, m'm'me." Chuckie stuttered in between his tears.

Peter stood there in shock. He couldn't believe that Tommy would do such a thing.

"Are you serious Chuckie?" Peter asked.

"Uh huh. He bit my arm when I tried to stop him from leaving the yard to go rescue the Reptar wagon." Chuckie said.

Peter went around to the side of the yard to see the gate that Tommy had opened, and latched it shut.

"Gosh! Tommy sure has been getting stubborn lately hasn't he." Peter said.

"I'll say, ever since he slept over at Zack's place, he's turndid into a different person, and while I was worried, right now, I'm worried and ascared." Chuckie said.

"Well, I think you and Tommy just, need a break for the rest of the day. First though, let's head inside and treat the wound before it becomes infected." Peter said, leading Chuckie into the house, where he saw to applying some medicine and a bandage to the three-year-old's bite.

Tired of playing outside, Kimi, Jesse, Zack, Phil and Lil also came inside as well, and Didi placed them into the playpen along with Dil. Nobody felt like talking much, as everybody played separately and quietly with different toys. No sooner had she put the toddlers down in the playpen, when the doorbell rang. Didi went to answer the door to find Kira and Celeste standing there.

"My, you guys are early." Didi said, letting them into the house.

"Chas and Betty asked me to come pick up Chuckie, Kimi, Phil and Lil early, and take them back to the Java Lava with me, where they're seeing to closing up for the night. Chas is going to the Lipschitz seminar, and Betty is having a friend of her's over for dinner." Kira said.

"And I was off work early so wanted to spend some extra time with my nephew, and, I spoke with Laura on the phone earlier, agreeing to let Jesse stay at my place until she got off around supper time." Celeste said.

"Well, there's another hour until I have to leave for the seminar, mind coming in for a few minutes? I've been meaning to talk to you." Didi said.

"Not at all." Celeste and Kira both said, following Didi into the kitchen where they all took a seat at the table.

"So, how are things?" Celeste asked.

"Well, I'm concerned about Tommy. He hasn't been himself since he slept over at your place with Zack. I'm especially worried that he's not getting enough sleep." Didi said.

"Oh I wouldn't worry about it. Zack and I fall asleep whenever we're ready to do so, and he does just fine." Celeste said.

"So that's it. You don't have Zack on any type of nighttime routine?" Didi asked.

"Well, no. You should know Didi that I'm quite new at being his guardian, and I just, want my nephew to be happy." Celeste replied.

"Well, I should point out that according to Lipschitz, children between the ages of birth to five do better if they have routines set in place. Spoil those routines, and you're only asking for troublesome children who may grow fussy, aggressive, and difficult to control when they need to follow set routines, like when they start going to school." Didi said.

"Yes, Chas and I make sure Chuckie and Kimi have a set bedtime schedule every night." Kira added.

"I see." Celeste said.

"You know, Lipschitz is giving a talk at the public library tonight that's free and open to the public. I'm planning to attend. Perhaps you ought to attend too. It might be beneficial and educational." Didi suggested.

"Well, I am fairly new to this whole parenting thing, it couldn't hurt. But what about Zack and Jesse?" Celeste asked.

"The kids are all welcome to stay here. Stu has some place to go this evening, but he told me he gave Taffy and Pop a call earlier." Didi said.

"I wasn't planning to go, but I might go with Chas then." Kira said, just as the phone rang.

Didi got up from her place at the table to go answer it.

"Pickles' residence." Didi said into the phone.

"Hi Mrs. Pickles, it's me, Taffy. Stu called me while I was in school, leaving a voicemail on my cell, asking if I could babysit." Taffy said into the phone.

"Great! When will you be getting here?" Didi asked.

"That's why I'm calling. Look, I'd love to babysit the minis tonight, but I have a huge test in my history class tomorrow, and I'm not doing too well in that subject. Progress reports will be coming out soon, and if I don't pass this test, my parents say I can't go to anymore gigs with my band for the rest of the quarter. I'd rather be watching the minis, but I unfortunately, have to stay home and study." Taffy said with disappointment.

"Well, I'm sorry you can't make it, but good luck with the studying, and we'll catch you the next time around." Didi said.

"Thank you so much, and tell the minis hi for me." Taffy replied.

"I sure will." Didi said, about ready to disconnect the call when she got a call waiting beep.

She clicked over to the other call.

"Pickle's residence." Didi said.

"It is me." Lou said into the phone.

"Oh hi pop, I take it you're returning Stu's call." Didi said.

"Yes, once I finally figured out how to check messages on this dag nabbid voicemail contraption. Took me fifteen minutes just to figure out how to listen to a message on this thing. Anyway, the reason why we weren't home is because I had to take Lulu to the doctor's this morning. We waited for fifteen minutes to see the doctor, as Lulu's throat has been bothering her. The poor thing has Strep, and she hasn't been on the medicine for twenty-four hours yet. We don't wish to expose the sprouts to the virus." Lou said.

"Gosh, I'm very sorry. Hope Lulu feels better." Didi said.

"Thank you. Well, bye." Lou said, followed by a click.

Didi hung up the phone and sighed.

"Something wrong Deed?" Stu asked, getting a glass of water and sitting back down at the table.

"Well, Taffy and Pop returned our phone calls. Taffy can't babysit because she has a huge test in school for her history class tomorrow that she needs to study for, and pop can't babysit because Lulu has Strep and he's been exposed to it." Didi said.

"Well, I'll take the kids." Kira said.

"I'm not so sure about that. Chuckie was bitten by Tommy today." Peter said.

"What?" Stu and Didi asked with surprise.

"Yes. It's obvious that something is going on with Tommy." Peter said.

"Guess we'll have to take the boys to dinner. It's not like I haven't done it before. Tommy went to my last meeting with Mr. Mucklehoney." Stu said.

"What about leaving them with Betty and Howard Deville?" Celeste asked.

"Betty is having company for dinner tonight. Some friend of her's named Lolanna. I wouldn't feel right with us imposing on their guests." Kira said.

"You're right." Celeste said.

"I'd be happy to watch Zack, even let him sleep over with Chuckie and Kimi tonight. And I'll let Laura know to pick up Jesse at my place. It's not like I was all that interested in going to the seminar anyway, since Chas was already going." Kira said.

"And Didi's right, I could benefit from going. Okay, it's settled then." Celeste said.

"Great! Well, the seminar starts in half an hour. We probably ought to get going so we can get a good parking space and a good seat inside." Didi said, standing up from the table.

"We need to leave soon too." Stu said.

"Tell you what, you go get Dil ready, and I'll help get Tommy ready." Peter said, the two men getting up from the table.

A short while later, Kira had all of the kids rounded up and saw to leaving, while Celeste and Didi got ready to go.

"Kira, we pass by your place on the way to the library, want me to drop off a bag of Zack's things on your front porch?" Celeste asked.

"Sure, go right ahead." Kira said.

Didi and Celeste went to leave for the seminar, while Stu and Peter went to get Dil and Tommy ready to go to the business dinner. Stu approached the playpen and picked up his youngest son.

"Come on Dil, time to get ready to go." Stu said, carrying his son upstairs, Peter following behind him.

Meanwhile, during all of this, when Tommy fell asleep, he had a dream where he was inside a giant cage, trying to pull Reptar out by tying a rope around his waste and drag him out.

"Don't worry Reptar, I'll save you." Tommy said, just as a Police officer came up to the two-year-old.

"Put the rope down and put your hands in the air." The cop called.

Tommy did what he was instructed to do, but not looking all that amused.

"No!" Tommy cried.

"I'm sorry young man, but Reptar is in trouble for destroying the city. He's in Jail for life. Now, it's your turn." The officer said, shoving Tommy into the prison cell with Reptar and closing the gate.

"No! Reptar's a hero! Please! Let us out!" Tommy cried, but it was no use.

The guards left, nobody hearing him. While Tommy looked for a way out, he heard an all-too familiar voice in the distance.

"Tommy!" Peter's voice called in the distance.

"Peter!" Tommy called.

"Tommy!" Peter's voice called again, but Tommy looked around, unable to spot him anywhere.

At that moment, Tommy opened his eyes, finding himself back in his bed, tears streaked on his cheeks and pillow, glaring up at Peter who stood over him.

Upon entering the bedroom, noticing that Tommy was still asleep, Stu got out some nice clothes for Dil to change into, and took him back to his room to get him changed, while Peter saw to waking up Tommy and doing the same.

"Come on Tommy, time to wake up and get dressed." Peter said.

"What's going on? Where are we going?" Tommy asked.

"You and Dil are going with me and your father to our dinner tonight." Peter said.

"Nah, that's where you're wrong. I'm sure Taffy or my grandpa will come watch me and Dilly." Tommy said.

"Nope, nobody can babysit you two tonight." Peter said.

"Then why don't I stay at Chuckie's then. I need to talk to him anyways." Tommy said, sitting up in bed and tossing his Reptar doll he was still hugging aside.

"Uh, I think you and Chuckie need a break tonight. Tommy what were you thinking! Chuckie's your best friend. Why did you bite him?" Peter asked.

"I was mad. Chuckie tried to stop me from rescuing Reptar, and I'm sick and tired of him trying to stop me." Tommy said.

"Well that's no reason to bite anybody." Peter said sternly.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to." Tommy said.

"Don't apologize to me, you can apologize to Chuckie the next time you see him, granted, he's not scared to death to go near you." Peter said.

Tommy gasp, about ready to start crying again, as a tear rolled silently down his cheek.

"Come on, it's time to get ready to go." Peter said.

"I'm not going!" Tommy snapped.

"Tommy, you don't have a choice. You have to go." Peter said.

"No! I'm two-years-old, I'm nearly all growed up, I don't gotta go nowhere with you, daddy and Dilly." Tommy said.

"Tommy, you may think you're growed up, but you're far from it. You're only two, and you can't stay here by yourself." Peter said.

"Sure I can. Besides, I wanna go back to sleep, wake up after the sun goes down and watch Nigel Strawberry." Tommy said.

It then hit Peter what was going on. Why Tommy had been acting so strange.

"Tommy, did you see Nigel Thornberry on TV very late at night at Zack's place?" Peter asked.

"Yeah how did you know I saw him?" Tommy asked.

"Oh, just a lucky guess. Anyway, you need to get dressed and ready for us to go." Peter said, grabbing Tommy's hand and standing up from the bed.

"No!" Tommy screamed, throwing himself down on to the carpet like a typical two-year-old.

"Tommy, you can't go in those clothes, this is a formal business dinner." Peter said.

At that moment, Stu returned to the room with Dil, all dressed in his very best. He was wearing a black tuxedo with a red clip on tie with Goober on it and some black dress shoes, while Stu was in his regular attire, minus his shoes and socks.

"Wow! Dil looks nice. Now, to get Tommy dressed so we can leave. And Stu, your shoes and socks are missing." Peter said.

"I know. I'm off to look for the socks I wanted to wear tonight." Stu said, as he left the room to go look for them.

Just then, Dil giggled and smiled, pulling the socks out of his pants pockets, and crawling off to the bathroom, where he found the toilet seat up. Meanwhile, Peter looked through the closet to see what he could find for Tommy to wear that might excite him about getting dressed to go to the restaurant.

Suddenly, he saw it! A black tuxedo identical to Dil's, only it was in Tommy's size, and the blue clip on neck tie with Reptar on it that Peter had given Tommy for his second birthday.

"Hey Tommy, it's a tuxedo that looks just like your brother's, and the Reptar tie you got for your birthday. You've been wanting to wear this. Come on, you'll look great." Peter said, showing the tuxedo to Tommy.

While he really wasn't up to going anywhere, as he had a headache, still felt tired, and upset, getting to wear the Reptar tie did cheer him up a little, so he let out a small smile and let Peter get him dressed in the tuxedo, black dress shoes, and Reptar tie. No sooner did Peter have him in a fresh diaper and in his clothes for dinner, when they heard Stu shout from the bathroom.

"Dil no!" Stu shouted from the bathroom.

And this, ends chapter 9. What's going on? And how will the business dinner go? Find out, come the next chapter!

Author's Note: The part where Tommy runs his Reptar wagon into the house, getting it timed out, was inspired by my nephew, who use to play with his ride on toys in the kitchen at my folks place, running them into the appliances on purpose. I'm not quite sure what his motive was, but because of doing that, he's now banned from playing with those things in the kitchen, and while I couldn't figure out my nephew's motive, I thought about how Reptar knocks down buildings, and this inspiring Tommy to do something similar, wanting to do something different. I also thought it might be interesting to have him talk to his Reptar doll, like how Angelica talks to Cynthia, though I sort of had writer's block on that bit of dialogue, I hope it came out okay. Also, the part where Tommy bites Chuckie was also inspired by real life, though in real life, it was my nephew who got bitten by another kid at daycare, not Zack doing the biting thankfully. Also, the line where Stu mentioned how Tommy went with him to his last meeting with Mr. Mucklehoney was a reference to the season 1 Rugrats episode, Waiter, there's a Baby in my Soup, and the lady, Lolana who's coming over for dinner at Betty and Howard's place is the same lady from the Acorn Nuts and Diapied Butts special, the first woman that Betty tried to set up Chas with on a date. No wonder he and Kira don't feel comfortable with his kids going over there. Still though, I hope the chapter came out okay, and I assure you all, there's plenty more to come, which I hope to get released, very soon.


	10. Waiter, there's a Baby in my Soup (Revis

Author's Note: My sincerest apologies for taking so long to get this chapter up. Things have been quite busy and crazy over the last couple of days, not to mention, intense to a degree, and I've found myself feeling quite tired, but before I'm possibly not around for a couple of days, I thought I'd see to getting up another chapter in this story. And so, let's see to the next chapter, and I hope you enjoy it!

Chapter 10, Waiter, there's a Baby in my Soup (Revisited)

Stu walked into the bathroom to find his pair of good socks floating around in the toilet bowl, and Dil staring at this sight with fascination.

"Dil no!" Stu cried, just as Peter and Tommy, dressed for the dinner walked to the bathroom door.

"Something wrong Stu?" Peter asked.

"Yes there's something wrong. Apparently my good socks ended up in the toilet. Oh why does this always happen to me right before an important dinner?" Stu asked, fishing his now ruined socks out of the toilet, while Peter picked up Dil and moved him out to the hall with his brother.

Both boys were already dressed to go to dinner, as they stood there, sat there in Dil's case, listening to the conversation.

"Well before my first dinner with Mr. Mucklehoney, Tommy proceeded to put my tie into the toilet. I managed to stop him before the entire thing went in there, but sadly, Dil did a number on these socks." Stu said, heading out of the bathroom back to his room where Peter followed him to help him find a new pair of socks and his shoes, as they needed to be leaving at this point.

Dil turned to his brother with a smile.

"You put daddy's tie in the potty? Neat!" Dil cried.

However, his two-year-old brother didn't answer, as he turned away, looking embarrassed. Sure, back when that happened, he found such behavior amusing, but now, a year later, he found doing stuff like that very immature. However, he knew his brother was close to the age he was when he pulled similar actions, as that business dinner occurred not long after his first birthday, so he just kept quiet, not wishing to start a scene, seeing he was already unimpressed he had to be awakened from his nap only to learn he had to go to another boring business dinner, the last thing on the toddler's agenda.

A little while later, Stu had on a fresh pair of socks and shoes, and everybody was ready to go. Peter came and got the boys.

"Okay boys, it's time to go." Peter said, picking up Dil who giggled excitedly.

Tommy on-the-other-hand, stood there, his arms crossed, not moving.

"Come on Tommy, time to go." Peter said.

"I'm not going! I'm staying home, or going to find Chuckie to apologize." Tommy snapped.

"Tommy, you're going to dinner, whether you want to or not. Now come on." Peter said, grabbing Tommy's hand and leading him down the stairs.

While he thought he had gotten the toddler calm, the outbursts of the stubborn two-year-old terror started up again outside when they were next to Stu's car in the driveway, when Tommy threw himself down on the driveway.

"Come on Tommy, time to get in the car!" Peter protested.

"No! I'm not going!" Tommy cried again.

"Come on Tommy, maybe it will be fun!" Peter said, going around and strapping Dil in his car seat on the passenger side of the car, while Tommy, on the driver's side of the car, sat up in the driveway.

"It's no fun, it's boring." Tommy said.

"Now Tommy, you never know until you try. You're always telling that to Chuckie and your friends, now, why not listen to your own advice, hmmm?" Peter said.

Of course, just the mention of Chuckie's name set him off, as he was worried he might have ended a friendship for good earlier that same day with his out of anger attack towards him. Tommy started wailing at the top of his lungs, as Peter came and picked him up, placing him into his car seat, where he sat on the edge of his seat.

"I'm not going!" Tommy shouted again between his sobs, hoping Peter would listen to him this time.

"I'm sorry, but you don't get a choice. You can say it all you want, but you're going. Now, sit back." Peter demanded, nearly forcing Tommy back in the car seat.

The Confederacy king was starting to run out of patience, as Tommy was going through a phase that nobody would have expected such a cheerful, usually optimistic little boy to go through. Peter finally got him into a position where he could get him buckled into his car seat, when Tommy put his hand over the clasp that went across his chest.

"I wanna do it." Tommy snapped.

"Well do it quickly. We're already running late as it is." Peter protested.

But Tommy, had other ideas, as he reached down and started unfascining the buckle that strapped his legs in. Peter stopped him, buckling Tommy himself.

"I wanted to do it." Tommy wined.

"No, you wanted to get out of going and try to run away to Chuckie's house. I'm sorry Tommy, but you're not seeing Chuckie tonight. You'll see him tomorrow when I take you, Dil, and your friends to the park. Now, sit still." Peter said impatiently, as he pulled a roll of duck tape out of his gray Confederacy uniform, and upon refascining the straps on Tommy's car seat, he placed duck tape over the buckles.

"There, now we can get to the restaurant in one piece." Peter said, wrapping the duck tape around the buckles a couple of times, before putting the roll back into his pocket and heading around to the passenger side of the car and getting in himself.

Stu fed Spike and Spiffi their supper, since Didi had long since left for the Lipschitz seminar, then came out just as soon as Peter had gotten in the car, managing to miss the mayhem of his oldest son's antics.

"Let's go guys." Stu said, getting into the car, starting it up, and heading in the direction of the restaurant.

All the way there, Tommy proceeded to cry and scream from the back seat, feeling trapped and uncomfortable.

"What's wrong Tommy?" Dil asked.

"Nothing Dil, just, leave me alone!" Tommy cried.

"Wanna play the car game again?" Dil asked.

"No!" Tommy snapped, crossing his arms and looking away from his brother, glancing out the window, just as Stu passed by Chuckie's house.

Seeing it, only made the two-year-old start up again. Peter turned to Stu with concern.

"I'm worried about Tommy, he hasn't been himself lately." Peter said.

"Relax Peter, according to Lipschitz, two-year-olds are creatures of habbit. Mess up their routines, and they'll become stubborn screaming targets." Stu said, turning into the parking lot.

By this time, Tommy was only wimpering, but when he tried to undo the duck tape on his car seat, trying to get out, he grew frustrated, starting to cry again. This only caused Dil to start crying along with him, as while he didn't have duck tape on his car seat, he wasn't coordinated enough to undo the buckles, making him feel just as frustrated. However, little did the boys know their night would only get worse, as an all-too familiar family walked out of the restaurant to the parking lot to the car that sat adjacent to the Pickles car on the driver's side. It was the Mcnultys, consisting of Colleen and her five boys, Timmy, Terry, Todd, Tye, and Teddy. Colleen went to her side of the car with the four younger brothers, while Timmy went to the passenger side of the car, an evil grin on his face, as he overheard Tommy and Dil crying nearby in the next car.

"Oh look at that, it's Pickles. He's a two-year-old cry baby. Ha ha ha ha ha! Though I'm not surprised, he's been hanging out with that baby brother cry baby of his for quite sometime now. Keep babying your baby brother, and you'll both be cry babies for life. Ooh, this is so good. I can't wait to tell everybody at the park that the Pickles boys are cry babies now." Timmy said, cackling evilly, just as Peter came around to start getting Tommy out of his car seat, while Stu was getting out of the car to go get Dil out.

However, before anybody could get anybody out of the car, Peter had a very stirn word with Timmy. Meanwhile, Tommy and Dil stopped crying immediately, and the usually optimistic boy, felt just awful. He had already been having a horrible day, with getting his Reptar wagon taken away and biting his best friend in anger, hurting and scaring the poor kid, and now, he couldn't decide what was worse, being called a cry baby, or hearing his little brother being called that, along with making fun of how slow he took to grow up into a big baby all because where Timmy was concerned, Tommy babied him. It was only icing on the cake where the two-year-old was concerned, as he looked very sad and upset, staring out the open door of the car, over at Peter and Timmy.

"Timmy Mcnulty." Peter said sternly.

"Ooh, it's Peter! How's the king?" Timmy asked teasingly.

"Not very happy with you at the moment young man. How dare you call two of my good friends cry babies. You were a baby, not to mention, two-years-old once. I'm sure you cried a great deal back then too when you were upset or put in a position you didn't wish to be in." Peter said.

"Ha! I never cried as a baby." Timmy said teasingly, starting to laugh.

"I highly doubt it. And I'd stop laughing if I were you, and think about what you're about to say before you speak. You understand?" Peter scolded.

"Maybe maybe not." Timmy said teasingly, smiling up at the king.

"Don't make me use this on you young man." Peter said, pulling out Erebus and showing it to Timmy.

While he would have expected the five-and-a-half-year-old redhead to trimble in fear at the sight of his infamous sword, Timmy actually looked excited.

"Oooh! A sword! So, wanna play soldiers?" Timmy asked.

"Well that's not exactly what I had in mind Timmy." Peter replied, just as Timmy reached out with his right hand and touched Peter's sword.

He jerked his hand back, as a burning painful sensation pulsed through it.

"Ow! Your sword is burning hot!" Timmy cried.

"That's because you have no good in your heart. Erebus doesn't like you Timmy. Why not learn to be nice and treat others with respect, and maybe, someday, Erebus will like you." Peter said.

"Erebus, what kind of a goofy name is that?" Timmy cackled.

"Just, get in the car." Peter commanded, just as Colleen came around to help Timmy get into the car.

"Oh, hello Peter." Colleen greeted with a smile.

"Hello Colleen Mcnulty. I should tell you, your son has been acting like a brat. You should seriously teach him some manners." Peter said.

"Oh I wouldn't worry about it." Colleen said, getting Timmy into the car, looking less than amused.

" _I'll have a word with my son about this when we get home. I'm not reprimanding him in a restaurant parking lot._ " Colleen thought to herself, as she went around to her side of the car and got in.

"Goodbye Peter." Colleen called from her side of the car, as she started up and saw to driving away.

Peter waved goodbye, as he turned and saw to undoing Tommy's car seat.

"Why did you tape me in here Peter?" Tommy asked.

"Because, heaven knows what you would have tried to do had I not." Peter replied, as he imagined a scenario where he had his back turned in the parking lot at the restaurant, and while he wasn't looking, Tommy had unstrapped himself from his car seat, escaped from the car, and ran out into the busy parking lot and heavy traffic street that lay ahead, trying to either find his own way home or head off to Chuckie's house to try making amends.

A few minutes later, Stu had Dil out of the car, while Peter had Tommy, and no sooner was the car locked up and they were heading inside the restaurant, when Mr. Mucklehoney walked up behind them.

"Pickles! Looks like we made it here around the same time. Great to see you again." Mr. Mucklehoney said with a smile, as Stu turned around in the parking lot, smiled, and shook his hand.

"Great to see you too Mr. Mucklehoney. Let's, head inside." Stu said, turning back around and leading everybody into the restaurant.

The restaurant was called The Red Dragon. Once called Chez Ennui, within the last year, it had closed down and been bought out by a combination Ty and Japanese company, which served both forms of quizeen at this joint. Once inside, everybody was settled at the table, Tommy and Dil next to each other in booster seats, while Peter sat across from Stu and Mr. Mucklehoney, his suitcase of inventions next to him, while Stu also had a suitcase of inventions next to him. Dil was looking around the restaurant with fascination.

" _It's like a big kitchen!"_ Dil cried, looking around at the various tables of happy eating customers that surrounded him and his folks.

Tommy on-the-other-hand was squirming in his seat, trying to get comfortable. The poor kid would rather be anywhere else than here, not to mention, he found his tuxedo hot and itchy. Thankfully, undoing buttons of a collared shirt was something he wasn't good at doing yet, otherwise, he might have broken the rules and gotten naked, once again, testing the limits of society. Dil had picked up the spoon that lay before him at this point, being fascinated by it, as he giggled and played with it, while Stu, Peter, and Mr. Mucklehoney began their meeting as soon as the waiter brought over menus and glasses of water.

"So, I see young Tommy here has grown quite a bit since we last met, but who's this new little fellow?" Mr. Mucklehoney asked.

"Oh that's my second son, Dil Pickles." Stu replied.

"Dil Pickles, oh that's a good one Pickles." Mr. Mucklehoney said with a laugh.

"And this is my good friend and partner, King Peter Albany of the Confederacy." Stu introduced, as Peter reached across the table to shake Mr. Mucklehoney's hand.

"Well, good to meet you Albany." Mr. Mucklehoney said, shaking Peter's hand.

"Please, Mr. Mucklehoney sir, call me Peter." Peter said.

"So Pickles, as you're probably well aware, we had a bit of a setback after our Reptar racecar was recalled nearly a year ago, and we're wondering if you might be interested in selling one of your inventions to Mucklehoney Industries." Mr. Mucklehoney said.

"You know, I had originally intended on entering that Reptar corperation contest. I had produced the Reptar wagon, only, it never made it to Japan for its entry." Stu said.

"Well why not?" Mr. Mucklehoney asked.

"Don't you watch the news? It ended up in one of our forests with his kids inside of it, shortly after his youngest, Dil here was born." Peter said.

"Well no wonder our entry got picked. Yep, the Reptar racecar. It's like those power wheels cars, only it looks like Reptar. Great little car, until we received our five-hundred dollar prize, then produced several of them, which injured the kids riding them. One of them tipped over, crushing the child, and several complaints from parents came in, claiming that gas powered ride in racecars for young children, weren't very safe. It was recalled very quickly, and Cozy Comforts, a bedding company, bought the design from us, and now, they've made popular, the all-too familiar, Reptar racecar bed." Mr. Mucklehoney explained, showing Stu and Peter a picture of the Reptar racecar bed, the same bed that Zack had at his apartment.

"So what's the problem?" Peter asked.

"Well while Cozy Comforts was interested in merging their company with us, we had a huge argument a few days ago and they decided to leave. We're not sure what to do, and we were wondering if you had any ideas." Mr. Mucklehoney said.

"Well, I must say, I've been facing inventor's block as of late, till my two-year-old son here got me to produce the first ever water bed with the latest in auqua relaxing technology, only it was a huge failure. Thankfully, my good friend Peter here came to my rescue, just as he did back when my Age Decreaser failed a hair over a year ago now." Stu said.

"Age Decreaser, what's that?" Mr. Mucklehoney asked.

"A wonderful invention, that allows a person to be made younger to any age. The product was tested on famous child Psychologist, Dr. Lipschitz. Look, here he is as a baby, after the original invention exploded." Peter said, showing Mr. Mucklehoney a picture of Dr. Lipschitz as a baby.

"And here he is, back to his normal self, after the invention was fixed, with the help of yours truly." Peter said, showing another picture of the adult Dr. Lipschitz, standing next to the Age Decreaser.

"Wow! Now that's, amazing! You know Albany, not sure what kind of time you have, but what do you have in mind for some inventions?" Mr. Mucklehoney asked.

While this was going on, Tommy, while bored and about ready to pass out, looking very droopy at the table listened, he couldn't believe what he heard.

" _The Lipschitz isn't a baby?_ " Tommy thought to himself, as Dil continued to play with his spoon, throwing it in Tommy's direction and hitting him in the head.

"Bull's eye!" Dil cried.

"Ow! Dil, please, don't throw stuff, it's not very big baby like." Tommy said.

Dil giggled, as Tommy let out a sigh.

"What's wrong Tommy?" Dil asked.

"I'm bored and tired Dil." Tommy replied, as he looked down at the carpeted floor.

Then, an idea came to the tired two-year-old, as he climbed down from his booster seat while nobody was looking, because the other adults were too engrossed in their conversation at the table.

"Where are you going?" Dil asked, climbing down from his booster seat and crawling over to where Tommy had stretched out on the floor, about ready to fall asleep.

"Just, getting more comfortable. Night Dilly." Tommy said sleepily, closing his eyes and passing out.

Dil sat up on his knees and stared at his brother in shock. Though it did make sense. They would take naps on the carpeted floor at home, why not do it in this place too.

At that moment, the waiter returned and took their orders for soup and appetizers, when the man nearly stepped on Tommy.

"Ow!" The waiter cried.

"What's the matter sir?" Peter asked.

"I stepped on this small child." The waiter replied, just as Peter stared down at the floor in between the booster seats, where Dil had crawled beneath his seat, disappearing out of sight, but Tommy continued to lie on the floor, asleep and motionless.

"Tommy, get off the floor." Peter scolded, until he noticed the child had passed out, obviously not listening to him.

He thought about waking him up, then recalled the evening they had trying to get to the restaurant in the first place, and decided against it.

"We're uh, very sorry sir." Stu said.

"Not a problem. Now, what will it be this evening?" The waiter asked.

"I'm interested in your sushi special." Mr. Mucklehoney said.

"I'll have the miso soup and some dumplings." Stu said.

"I'm interested in the shrimp Ty Ty myself, and for the boys, how about some chicken strips and cheese dumplings." Peter said.

Stu nodded, being agreeable to the order Peter put in for his boys, as the waiter finished taking the orders down on his notepad.

"Your orders are on the way." The waiter said, refilling the water glasses, and heading off to the kitchen to put in their orders.

While they waited for their food, Peter opened his suitcase he had brought with him, and lay out several of his inventions on the table.

"How about this time machine Mr. Mucklehoney. As long as the kids using it don't mess up the time space continuum, it's perfectly safe." Peter said, showing off his infamous black time machine with the display in the middle and the green go button.

"Nice, nice, but afraid Wee Willy Warp has us already beat on that. They even have one on display at the Toy Palace." Mr. Mucklehoney said.

"Oh yes, I believe I've seen that." Peter said.

"I know I've seen it." Stu said.

"Now how did this get here?" Peter said, picking up what looked like an oversized TV remote with an arrow on one end.

It was black, and had number buttons on it, arranged similarly to those arranged on a telephone keypad.

"What do you got there Albany?" Mr. Mucklehoney asked.

"Uh, that's Peter, and this is currently an unfinished piece of work. It's the Dimention Remote. It allows us to meet ourselves from other dimentions." Peter said, pointing the device at Mr. Mucklehoney, and pressing the number five.

At that moment, a beam of white light hit Mr. Mucklehoney, who was laughing at this point, in disbelief of what Peter was talking about, and all of the sudden, another Mr. Mucklehoney look alike was sitting in the one deserted chair that sat across from Tommy and Dil's booster seats. He had the same face and body structure as the original Mr. Mucklehoney, but Mr. Mucklehoney-5 had a very serious expression, was wearing black pants, a white collared shirt, a dark gray coat, and he wore a black tie, while the original Mr. Mucklehoney was wearing a red coat, yellow collared shirt, and blue tie.

Mr. Mucklehoney stared in shock at his look alike that sat at the table with them.

"Wow wow, look at that Albany, you created my clone. Oh that's good." Mr. Mucklehoney said, laughing histarically.

Of course, that all changed, when Mr. Mucklehoney-5 picked up a bread plate and threw it at Mr. Mucklehoney's head.

"I wouldn't laugh if I were you. I'm Mr. Mucklehoney from the fifth dimention, and I see nothing funny about you clowns." Mr. Mucklehoney-5 said angrily.

"Oh no." Peter muttered.

"What's the matter Peter?" Stu asked.

"Well apparently, I brought Mr. Mucklehoney from the fifth dimention to our world. In the fifth dimention, everybody there has opposite personalities. So in other words, anybody who's nice here is more or less, evil in that universe, and as seen here, while our own Mr. Mucklehoney likes to have fun and joke, Mr. Mucklehoney-5 takes everything seriously, and is peer evil." Peter explained.

"What am I like in the fifth dimention?" Stu asked.

"What are you like? Pickles, you're dead." Mr. Mucklehoney-5 replied.

"Come again?" Stu asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Well, at Mucklehoney Industries, we mass produced the Age Increaser." Mr. Mucklehoney-5 started to explain, pulling a picture out of his pocket that looked juch like Stu's Age Decreaser from this dimention and showed it to the other members at the table.

"That looks like my Age Decreaser!" Stu commented.

"Ha! Decreaser, well where I come from, we increase everybody's age, until they pass the death threshold. The computer let's us know when a person's expected death date is to approach, should we increase them by age, allowing them to grow up faster, or in most cases, it's a simple means of killing them off. I used it on Mr. Stu Pickles when he won the Reptar corperation prize, making me very jealous. According to the device, your expected age of death is eighty-years-old. Bumped you up to eighty-two, got a warning stating that the person would die, next thing I knew, you were lying, dead on the floor of my headquarters, and we've been going around, killing everybody off. Ha ha ha ha ha!" Mr. Mucklehoney-5 cackled evilly.

"And what about Peter?" Stu asked.

"Oh I'm not dead in that dimention. I'm just, chained to my own dungeon, dressed in orange clothes, with my hair died white, after refusing to be a test subject for Mr. Mucklehoney's invention." Peter said.

"And how do you know this?" Stu asked.

"Went to this dimention myself by flipping the switch on the back here, and met myself in that dimention. The only reason why I couldn't meet anybody other than myself is because the Peter of the fifth dimention is encased behind an electric fence. I tried to cut away at the fence with Erebus and escape, but it shocked me, prompting me to go back home. I haven't been back to this universe ever since." Peter explained.

"But I'm now in your universe, and now, I shall see, to taking over the world!" Mr. Mucklehoney-5 cried excitedly, as he saw to picking up several dishes and utencils from the table, and throwing them in every which direction, hitting several customers in the head.

He then got up, running around the restaurant, spraying salt and pepper into peoples faces, injuring several customers.

"Give me that that's mine!" Mr. Mucklehoney-5 cried, taking a half eaten dinner roll out of an elderly woman's hand and stuffing it into his mouth.

Meanwhile, Dil was watching all of this mad action from beneath his chair, as he saw this grown man running around, taking peoples food from them, throwing things, and not only acting very rude and childish, but to Dil, he was acting like a giant baby-baby. Realizing this, it suddenly hit him that if he didn't change his ways, he might end up just like this evil form of his daddy's boss someday when he's all grown up. However, he didn't have any time to think, when a plate of hot egg rolls hit him in the head.

Dil started crying loudly, which awoke Tommy next to him.

"What's wrong Dilly?" Tommy asked sleepily, rubbing his eyes and sitting up, noticing all of the chaos happening around him.

"That's what's going on." Dil replied, pointing to Mr. Mucklehoney-5, who was now fighting with a little boy to get his chicken wing out of his hand.

"Give it to me you good for nothing child. God damn it I hate children." Mr. Mucklehoney-5 shouted at the top of his lungs.

Meanwhile, back at their table, the real Mr. Mucklehoney sat there in his chair, the smile no longer on his face, as he trimbled in fear at this chaotic display before him. Just then, Mr. Mucklehoney-5 turned around to spot Tommy and Dil on the ground.

"Ah, babies, let's get them." Mr. Mucklehoney-5 said, throwing a knife in the direction of Tommy's head.

He dodged the knife, but wasn't so lucky when Mr. Mucklehoney-5 threw a teapot at his head, slamming in the back of his head, causing him to be knocked out on a dishes cart that was passing by at that very moment, landing on the deserted shelf on the bottom, face down.

Just then, Mr. Mucklehoney-5 came back over to his look alike, and glared at him angrily.

"All right you, join me, and we'll rule the world!" Mr. Mudcklehoney-5 said.

"Uh, no." Mr. Mucklehoney replied, backing away from his evil counterpart, inching his chair away from the table.

"Well, what about you Pickles? Care to join me?" Mr. Mucklehoney-5 asked.

"Are you kidding? No way!" Stu cried.

Just then, Mr. Mucklehoney-5 attempted to choke Stu, making him cough and gag. Peter went over, trying to push Mr. Mucklehoney-5 off of him, only for Mr. Mucklehoney-5 to pick up his left leg and kick Peter in the stomach, sending him backwards on to the floor. Then, Mr. Mucklehoney-5 proceeded to beat the stuffing out of Stu, as Dil stared at this horrible display.

"I've gotta save my daddy! Tommy?" Dil called, only to find his brother was gone.

"Tommy!" Dil cried, crawling quickly through the restaurant, until he caught up to the cart where his brother was still lying unconscious on the bottom.

He crawled on top of Tommy, just as the cart was wheeled into the kitchen over near a dish washer, as he proceeded to try to shake his brother awake, without much success. Looking around, he found he was in a giant kitchen.

"I can't wait for Tommy to wake up, I've gotta do something to save my daddy." Dil said, as he climbed some drawers up to the counter, where several ingredients were laid out, along with some finished orders.

Little did he know that the bowl of soup nearby was his daddy's order, as Dil picked up some green curry, dumping its entirety into the bowl. He then had fun, finding a bag of flour and some whip cream on the counter too, dumping the flour everywhere, and spraying the whip cream at one of the bussers washing dishes. Then, he picked up a pie and threw it in the shef's face, giggling at the mess that landed on him.

"Wow! This is fun! And look! A treat for my brother!" Dil cried, crawling over to some fish being prepared to make sushi.

Little did he know that it hadn't been fully prepared yet, making it very poisonous if eaten. No matter, Dil stuffed the item in his pants pocket of his tuxedo,since he couldn't exactly reach his diaper at that moment, just as another cart came around. Not wishing to be spotted, , he grabbed on to the cart and crawled down to the bottom shelf, knocking an order of soy beans to the floor, just as the waiter loaded on to the cart, the orders for Stu, Peter, Mr. Mucklehoney, Tommy and Dil. Completely forgetting about Tommy, Dil returned to the table, which at this point, it was one of the only tables left standing.

Peter was trying to get Mr. Mucklehoney-5 to return to his own dimention, but as soon as he had the remote pointed at Mr. Mucklehoney-5, he quickly jumped out of the way, as he continued to overturn tables in the restaurant, making a huge mess, causing several customers to run out of the building in a panic.

"What are we gonna do Peter?" Stu cried, just as their orders came.

"I don't know." Peter cried in frustration, burying his face in his hands.

Just then, the waiter came with their orders. The soup with the green curry was place down in front of Stu, just as Mr. Mucklehoney-5 ran back over to their table, where he proceeded to tie up his original counterpart with some curtains he undid from a nearby window.

"Let me go!" Mr. Mucklehoney cried, tied up to his chair, feeling useless at that point.

"Never!" Mr. Mucklehoney-5 snapped, as he turned to Stu, who was waiting for his soup to cool.

"Come on Pickles, eat your soup. It might be your last meal if I have anything to do with it." Mr. Mucklehoney-5 said, picking up the spoon and feeding Stu like he were a tiny baby.

Stu took a bite, but his face turned red as a painful look crossed his face upon tasting the awful burning green curry, which more or less, ruined the soup.

"bleas;dlweoieuroeiur." Stu cried, not being able to feel his mouth, making him talk in jibberish.

" _Oh no! Mr. Mucklehoney from this other place is a growed up baby-baby, and now, he's trying to turn my daddy into one too!_ " Dil thought to himself, worried, as he climbed down from the food cart, and over to Peter's leg, where he tugged on his pants.

Peter stared down at Dil.

"What is it Dil?" Peter asked.

"We gotta stop him, before that evil man turns my daddy into a baby-baby!" Dil cried.

"Don't worry Dil, I got it. But where's Tommy?" Peter asked.

"I don't know." Dil replied.

Unknown to either of them, Tommy had since awakened in the kitchen. Hearing a loud crash, once he oriented himself to his surroundings, the two-year-old quietly crawled out of the kitchen into the disasterous dining room, where he crawled over to where Mr. Mucklehoney-5 was standing before Mr. Mucklehoney, tying him up to a chair. By this point, Mr. Mucklehoney-5's shoes had come untied, and Tommy tied them to the chair legs of the chair where Mr. Mucklehoney was tied up. Then, not wishing to be seen, he scooted to a corner of the restaurant, as he watched what was about to happen next.

"Hey! I can't move!" Mr. Mucklehoney cried, trying to move, but having trouble because he was now tied to the chair.

Just then, Peter was holding the bowl of Stu's soup.

"Okay Peter, now throw it at that evil man's head." Dil cried.

"Okay, but I don't know what it's going to do." Peter said, tossing the bowl of soup at Mr. Mucklehoney-5's head.

The man started licking his lips, as he got some of the horrible taste of the green curry in his mouth, nearly choking on the soup, as he fell backwards to the floor, causing the chair with the real Mr. Mucklehoney to land on top of him.

Just then, a waiter came over and untied the real Mr. Mucklehoney, while another waiter was nearby with his cell phone, calling the Police. As soon as the real Mr. Mucklehoney was untied from the back of the chair, he got up and ran for the bathroom, leaving a clear shot to Mr. Mucklehoney-5, lying on the floor of the restaurant.

"Now!" Dil cried, as Peter aimed his dimention invention at Mr. Mucklehoney-5, flipped the red switch on the back from exit, to enter, and pressed the number 5.

Just then, the white beam of light hit Mr. Mucklehoney-5, sending the Mr. Mucklehoney-5 back home to his original dimention. As soon as everybody saw what Peter had done, including the Police who had showed up at that very moment, the entire restaurant gave Peter an applause and a standing ovation.

"Bravo! Bravo!" Two elderly men called from one of the few tables that wasn't destroyed on the opposite side of the dining room, just as one of the bussers found Tommy in the corner of the restaurant, and scooped him up, taking him back to the kitchen, trying to locate his family.

Not wishing to cause anymore trouble, not to mention, at this point, Mr. Mucklehoney was hyperventalating into a paper bag, Stu ran over to Peter and Dil.

"blejablerebabababa." Stu cried, still feeling the effects of the green curry on his tongue.

Before Peter could try to figure out what Stu was trying to say, one of the police officers spoke into a bull horn.

"Would the parents of a young toddler with dark purple hair, wearing a black tuxedo with a blue Reptar tie please come to the kitchen immediately?" The officer called.

"Tommy!" Peter cried, handing Dil over to his father and rushing back to the kitchen, where one of the bussers had Tommy cradled in his arms.

"Oh, thank you for keeping Tommy safe." Peter said, grabbing the two-year-old from the nice bus boy.

"Not a problem." The bus boy said, handing Tommy over to Peter.

They headed back out to the dining room, where Stu was paying the bill, and together, they drug the petrified Mr. Mucklehoney out to the parking lot, where they escorted him to his car.

"You can calm down now Mr. Mucklehoney, that evil man is all gone now." Peter said, just as Mr. Mucklehoney took the bag away from his face.

He wasn't sure what to think at that moment. Not sure of what to say, he got into his car and drove off. The rest of them got into their car, and saw to doing the same. No sooner had they left the parking lot, when Tommy turned to his brother.

"I'm hungry." Tommy said.

It was then that Dil remembered the raw fish treat he had snuck away from the kitchen and put away in his pocket. He fished it out and handed it to his brother.

"Here you go Tommy." Dil said, handing it to him.

Tommy took a bite, and while he wasn't so sure if he liked it, he ate it anyway, seeing that by his knowledge, he either slept through dinner, or missed the biggest distruction in history, until he awoke and secretly saw to helping with ending it.

"Thanks Dilly, and I'm sorry about yelling at you earlier. I guess, I was just, having a bad day is all." Tommy said, upon finishing his fish.

"It's okay. Did you have a nice nappy?" Dil asked.

"Yeah, but I'm glad I waked up when I did or else we might still be at that place." Tommy said.

"What do you mean?" Dil asked, confused.

"I tied that evil man to the chair. Tied his shoelaces to the legs, just like I did with my daddy's the lastest time I saw that man." Tommy said.

"Are you talking of the time you put daddy's tie in the potty?" Dil asked.

"Yeah, I had to go to the restaurant then too. I was bored, so decided to go exploring. Not wanting daddy or that Mucklehoney guy to come after me, I tied his laces to the table before sneaking off." Tommy said.

"Wow! My brother's a hero!" Dil cried.

"No, you're the hero Dilly. You helped Peter make that evil man disappear." Tommy said, letting out a huge yawn, as Stu pulled into the driveway.

This entire time, Peter and Stu were quiet, as Stu still felt the effects of the green curry, making it difficult to feel his tongue, let alone, speak coherently.

"I don't know about that Mr. Mucklehoney guy, but I'm glad we made it out of there in one piece. And sorry about all of the trouble. I wasn't planning to bring that dimention prototype to the restaurant. Frollo had put it into my suitcase by mistake. No matter, I'll deal with him later. Meanwhile, I'd better be getting home and getting some sleep if I'm to return tomorrow to take the kids to the park." Peter said, stepping out of the car.

Stu nodded with a smile, as he got his boys out of their car seats and took them inside. Upon getting inside the door, he went to the kitchen where he not only fixed Tommy and Dil's bottles of hot milk, but he fixed a glass of cold milk for himself, and had a drink. Before he knew it, the spicy green curry was washed away, and he could feel his mouth again.

"Shew! I don't know what they put into my soup, but that was awful! Don't think we'll be going back to that restaurant anytime soon boys." Stu said, carrying his boys up to bed, just as Didi ccame in, returning from the Lipschitz Seminar.

"Stu, I'm back!" Didi called from the bottom of the stairs.

"Okay Deed. Just getting the boys to bed." Stu called from upstairs.

He had changed the boys out of their tuxidos into their pajamas, Tommy into a pair of blue footsy Reptar pajamas, and Dil into an old pair of purple footsy pajamas that use to be Tommy's, as he now fit into some of the clothes that Tommy wore at age one, and he was about to tell them a bedtime story, only to find that upon hitting the pillow in their beds, they passed out.

"Well, goodnight kids." Stu said, blowing them a kiss and shutting off the lights.

Soon, everybody was asleep in the Pickles household, that is, until Dil awoke with a start in the middle of the night, crying.

And this, ends chapter 10. So, what's going on now? Find out, come the next chapter!

Author's Note: Well, not sure if I can say that it was better than the original episode where we meet Mr. Mucklehoney in his only appearance on the series, but I hope this chapter turned out okay. Also, I thought about looking at how Zack's sleepover was going at Chuckie's, but this chapter ended up long enough with all that took place at the restaurant. So we'll see how that went in the next chapter, or possibly the following chapter, as I do believe I only have five chapters left to get released at this time. Also, the Age Decreaser belongs to Olaughlinhunter, and the idea of other dimentions belongs to TCKing12. And in terms of how Tommy acted towards the beginning of the chapter was inspired by my nephew, who often acts in the same stubborn manner much of the time when we're trying to go some place. And, as far as the title of this chapter goes, I thought I heard somewhere that the original title for Waiter, there's a Baby in my Soup was going to be called, The Restaurant, but while I looked at one of the unofficial Rugrats websites to double check my sources, I couldn't find it anywhere, thus, titling this chapter the way I did, making it, more or less, a sequel to the original season 1 episode. Not sure when more chapters will become available, but hopefully, they'll be up sometime soon.


	11. Late Night Comforts

Author's Note: I'm terribly sorry for not being around over the last few days. No sooner did I get chapter 10 posted on Friday morning, when my world more or less, fell apart, and for the past few days, I've felt just, absolutely miserable emotionally. To put it in perspective of Inside Out terms, Joy has been in hiding, while Sadness, Anger, and Fear have been in charge of the controls at Headquarters as of late, pressing the tear jerker button every so often, and Fear has been put in charge of my dreams, while at the same time, Family Island, if it hadn't been crumbling enough over the past six months, it seems it has only been going through more distruction over the past few days, about ready to erupt entirely. But seems Joy has managed to find her way back for now, so while she has control at Headquarters, better present you all with another chapter while I can. Maybe two chapters if at all possible.

Chapter 11, Late Night Comforts

Several adults filed out of the Public Library late at night, carrying blue paper pamplets and several people carried copies of Dr. Lipschitz's newest book, The Two-Year-Old Terrors to add to their collections, as they got into their cars in the parking lot and drove away. And while most libraries only have one copy of a book to check out, this was a little bit different. Dr. Lipschitz was giving these books away with the pamplets at his seminar. Shortly after the bulk of the parking lot was deserted, Chas, Didi, and Celeste were the last three adults to leave the library as Dr. Lipschitz was packing his stuff up in the lecture hall. Because Chas and Didi already had copies of his latest book, and Celeste was blind, making it impossible for her to read a print book, the three of them walked out with copies of the pamphlet, which Celeste planned to scan into her computer with the Kurzwheil program to look over later.

"So, what did you think of the seminar Celeste?" Didi asked, as she walked towards her car, Celeste doing sighted guide with her.

"It was, very educational. I learned a lot of skills I can use to better my parenting to my nephew Zack, such as some tips on good bedtime routines. I also had no idea that watching television too close to bedtime could induce more nightmares, causing interrupted sleep." Celeste said, getting into the passenger side of the car.

"Oh I've known that for a very long time. My son Chuckie takes very much after me, very prone to having nightmares if I'm not careful." Chas said.

"Well I'm glad you could come to the meeting with us Chas." Didi said.

"Yeah, I'm sorry Kira couldn't come, but I do plan to share this pamphlet with her, as it might help us make more compromises in terms of raising Chuckie and Kimi." Chas replied.

"What do you mean?" Celeste asked, raising an eyebrow, about to close her door, until she overheard the conversation Didi and Chas were having outside the car, being curious about what they had to say.

"Well Celeste, I met Kira in Paris, and while we got married, adopted one another's kids and started a family, it hasn't always been easy. You see, Chuckie's use to how I go about things, like entertaining him during bath time with the bathtime puppet friends, something I learned about in one of Lipschitz's earlier manuals, Taiming your Toddler to help toddlers feel good about taking a bath, while Kira, being of Japanese descent and then working in Paris, she has introduced Kimi to a variety of foods that neither I nor Chuckie have eaten much before. It's made for some interesting dinners and bedtime routines when we first got together, but we've managed to compromise. We'll often alternate each night in terms of who fixes meals so Chuckie and Kimi get a wide variety of foods, while I typically give them their bath, unless it looks like I'll be out late, like the case with tonight, since Kira's not all that into the whole puppet thing, yet though, she likes reading Kimi a bedtime story before putting the kids to sleep, and has implemented daily vitamins and florride to keep the kids healthy. Together, we've managed to make it work, and for the most part, Chuckie and Kimi seem to be very happy, healthy young children." Chas said with a smile.

"Well, thanks for this info Chas, I'll definitely keep it in mind." Celeste said, closing her door, while Didi went around to the driver's side of the car.

"So, are we on for tomorrow morning? Kira and I will be dropping the kids off at your place and Peter will be taking them to the park?" Chas asked.

"That's the plan." Didi said, opening her door.

"I just hope Chuckie's okay. I'm a little bit worried seeing he was bitten today by Tommy." Chas said worriedly.

"Oh I wouldn't worry about it Charles, Tommy didn't mean to bite him, he's just going through the pase of the terrible twos. I'm sure by tomorrow, it will be like the incident never happened." Didi said reassuringly.

"I hope so. Well, goodnight everyone." Chas said, waving as he turned to walk towards his car.

"Goodnight." Celeste and Didi said in unison, as Didi closed her door, started up the car, and they drove out of the parking lot in the direction of her house for Celeste to pick up her driverless van and head for home, as she rode with Didi to the seminar, while Kira took Zack back to her place with Chuckie and Kimi for their sleepover.

Chas got into his car and drove home, when he arrived to find Kira sitting at the kitchen table, sipping on some green tea and reading a romance novel. Upon hearing footsteps approaching the kitchen table, she looked up from her book to see Chas approaching. He took a seat at the table and lay the pamphlet from the seminar down on top.

"Hi Kira." Chas greeted.

"Hi Chas, how was the seminar?" Kira asked.

"It was great! And I got this pamphlet here that will give us extra facts about things to be on the lookout for with two and three-year-olds that Lipschitz's latest book doesn't cover. They even have at the back a list of local activities to get the kids into to help foster social, listening, and cognative skills." Chas said, turning to the back of the pamphlet and showing it to Kira.

Kira skimmed through the list and looked at the activities offered.

"Wow! Incredible list here! Music classes at the community center on Saturday mornings for kids ages one to five, swimming lessons, play groups, and more! We'll definitely have to talk with the gang about some of these, and see to registering our kids for some of these activities over the course of this next year, as they will better prepare them for preschool." Kira commented.

"So how did things go here?" Chas asked.

"Just great! Zack is having a wonderful time at his sleepover with Chuckie and Kimi." Kira replied with a smile.

It was true, all evening while Tommy and Dil were at the disasterous business dinner with Stu, Peter, and what ended up being the two Mr. Mucklehoneys, Zack, Chuckie and Kimi were having a very different evening. They played with blocks for a while, until dinner was ready. Before they went to eat, Chuckie noticed how Zack was putting the blocks away by size, color, and shape.

"Wow Zack, you catch on fast! I didn't even have to tell you how to put them away." Chuckie commented.

"Let's just say I learndid a little something from Tommy when he slept over at my partment and he tried to put my blocks away in the same fashion." Zack replied.

Chuckie crossed his arms and turned away.

"Tommy? Tommy who?" Chuckie asked sarcastically.

"Oh come on Chuckie, don't give me that, you know Tommy didn't mean to bite you." Zack said.

"Yeah, Zack's right." Kimi added.

"Hoomp." Chuckie muttered, covering the spot on his arm where Tommy had bitten him earlier that was now covered up with a bandage with his other hand.

Zack finished putting the blocks away and soon, they were all eating dinner, having a dish made with chicken and bamboo. While Chuckie wasn't all that inthusiastic about trying this new dish, as he was still getting use to his new mommy's cooking, after a little bit of encouragement from his sister and Zack, who both liked it very much, as Zack felt it was best to be a polite guest in Chuckie's home, he gave it a try and decided he liked it. After dinner, Kimi and Chuckie took their daily vitamins and florride, and soon, it was time for all three kids to take their bath. Of course, Kira was not one to do the bathtime puppets, but since Chuckie and Kimi had a guest, nobody minded too much. Zack had lots of fun playing with the toys in the tub, and shortly afterwards, everybody was put into their pajamas, Kimi into her pink and white footsy polkadotted pajamas, Chuckie into the dark green pajamas he's seen wearing in such Rugrats episodes as Sleep Trouble and Accidents Happen, and Zack was placed into a pair of orange pajamas that his aunty Celeste gave to Kira before she went to the seminar.

"Wow! Who knew taking a bath with my friends could be so much fun!" Zack said, making a duck float in the water.

"I know! It's lots of fun!" Kimi commented excitedly, blushing a smile over at Zack, who blushed a smile back.

"Okay kids, time to get all washed off and into your pajamas." Kira said, getting the toys out of the tub and washing off each of the toddlers with soap and shampoo.

Soon, everybody was in their pajamas, and she had Chuckie and Zack tucked into his bed together, with Kimi across the room in her crib. Then, she sat down in a chair and pulled out their bedtime story for the evening.

"This is one of Chuckie's favorite stories, The Beautiful Butterfly." Kira said, opening up the book and beginning to read the story.

It was basically that, the story of a caterpillar who turned into a butterfly. It was an homage to The Ugly Duckling, only it was about an ugly caterpillar who turned into a beautiful butterfly, opposed to the original story it was based off of, where an ugly duckling turns into a beautiful swan. Kira read the entire book to them, as the three toddlers lay in their beds and listened.

"The End." Kira said, when she reached the last page and closed the book.

While reading the book, she did give Zack his hot milk, something that Chuckie and Kimi had since outgrown in terms of a regular bedtime routine, only doing it on occasion, like when staying over at Tommy's house, where such a routine was still in effect. She saw that Zack had finished his milk by the time the story was finished, so she took the empty bottle from him, removed Chuckie's glasses and placed them on his nightstand, and blew all of the kids a kiss.

"Goodnight Chuckie, goodnight Kimi, goodnight Zack, pleasant dreams." Kira said from the bedroom door, blowing each of the kids a kiss as she shut off the lights, closing the door behind her and heading downstairs.

Once she was gone, Zack turned to Chuckie.

"You know, getting ready for bed wasn't a bad thing. Maybe Tommy was right and I was wrong." Zack said.

"Please don't mention Tommy." Chuckie said.

"Come on Chuckie, how can you turn your back on Tommy? Just because he bit you don't mean he hates you. I mean, haven't you two been bestest friends forever? I mean, it's not like you two have had issues before, have you?" Zack asked.

"Oh you'd be surprised. We've had falling outs before, like that time I didn't wanna go to the big green box in my backyard, or the time we were losted in the forest and Tommy cared more about saving his baby brother Dil from the monkeys than getting home, and just, caring more about Dil than me in general on that aventure, and that time when we couldn't agree what to do at the park, till I metted this kid named Freddy who was more ascared of stuff than me, and realized I'd rather be playing with Tommy more." Chuckie said.

"Well what happened those other two times to mend your friendship?" Zack asked.

"Well, when I didn't wanna go to the big green box cuz the firstest time we went, I fell down and broked my glasses and got a booboo, Tommy Phil and Lil went, and Tommy gotted caught by a snake. I had to rescue him, and not only have we not gone back there ever since, but I realized I was wrong to get all mad and not be friends no more. And when we were all in the forest, after ditching Tommy, as at this point, me, Phil and Lil all ditched him cuz none of us cared for Dil as a baby-baby back then, it then hit me that somebody needed to care about Dil, and if anybody was gonna be the person to do it, then it should be his big brother Tommy. So we got the monkeys off of our backs, Spike founded us and saved us from a wolf who tried to eat us, and our mommies and daddies founded us and we got to go home." Chuckie explained.

"And really, think about it for a minute, while you've helped Tommy out, like rescuing him from that snake in your daddy's green box, what has Tommy done for you?" Zack asked.

Chuckie thought about this for a few minutes, as he cuddled with WaWa, before responding.

"Well, if it weren't for Tommy and all of his scary adventures, I don't know if I would have had the courage to stand up to that Coco lady in Paris and save my daddy." Chuckie said.

"Come again?" Zack asked out of curiosity.

"Well, I wanted a princess mommy, but Angelica tricked my daddy in marrying this evil lady who owned Reptar land named Coco." Chuckie explained, before Zack interrupted him.

"Let me guess, this Coco lady, was she like an Angelica on stairoids?" Zack asked.

"Uh, yeah, I guess you could say that. Anyways, she locked me and my friends away in some dark scary place with the giant Reptar robot, and together, we escaped and went to the church where my daddy was about to marry her, but I stopped the wedding by saying my firstest word to the growed ups, and, well, my daddy married Kira, my new mommy, and me and Kimi are together now as brother and sister." Chuckie said.

"Wow! So see? Tommy's a aportant part of your life." Zack said.

"I don't know. I mean, Tommy has never actually hurted me like that before." Chuckie said, rubbing the spot on his arm where Tommy had bit him, which no longer had a bandage on it anymore as Kira removed it before they took their bath.

"Well, the wound is healing up nicely, and, well, why not sleep on it. Maybe you'll change your mind when we go to the park tomorrow with Peter." Zack said, letting out a huge yawn.

"Maybe, I will admit though, you are a much nicer house guest than Tommy was the firstest time he slept over." Chuckie said.

"What do you mean?" Zack asked.

"Well, while we've stayed up late talking, at least we talked about something apportant. Tommy just wanted to talk about green Jell-O, wondering how it was made. I didn't have an answer for him, and just, wanted to go to sleep. He also often complained about how he did things at his house." Chuckie said.

"Did you two ever figure out how green Jell-O was made?" Zack asked.

"Nope, to this day, we still don't know." Chuckie replied.

"Well, I've gots the answer to that question. Green Jell-O is green cuz it's made with a green fruit called limes." Zack said.

"So limes is what makes it green?" Chuckie asked.

"Uh huh." Zack replied, both boys letting out huge yawns, as Kimi had let out a huge yawn across the room and snuggled up with Super Thing, passing out at this point.

"Well, goodnight Chuckie." Zack said, letting out a huge yawn and closing his eyes.

"Goodnight Zack." Chuckie said, letting out a huge yawn and closing his eyes, as the two boys drifted off to sleep.

Meanwhile, when Celeste and Didi returned to Didi's house, they both got out of her car, Celeste went over to her driverless van, climbed in, and headed for home, while Didi went into her house to find that Stu had already put the boys to bed, seeing to heading to bed herself. Celeste headed for home, realizing that this was the first night since she gained custody of her nephew Zack that she was by herself. This gave her time to think about what she had learned that evening at Dr. Lipschitz's seminar, as she kicked off her shoes and got ready for bed, placing the pamphlet down on her computer desk, which sat in one corner of her bedroom, as a reminder to scan it in later and take a good look at it. She would have done it right then, except after taking the kids to the park, working for two hours that afternoon, and attending the seminar at the library, she was plumb exhausted. She changed into her dark blue pajamas and plopped down on her bed, as she stretched out, drifting off to sleep.

However, while things seemed relatively peaceful at the Pickles and Finsters homes, it didn't last forever. Upon falling asleep, Dil was having a nightmare. In his dream, he was playing in the living room, when he spotted Peter's Dimention remote on the coffee table. Forgetting all about what had happened at the restaurant, he picked it up, pointing it over to the playpen, where his brother Tommy, Chuckie, Phil, Lil, Kimi, Zack, and Jesse were all playing happily with the ball. Little did they know their look alike rivals were about to appear, as Dil hit the number five on the invention's keypad, causing a beam of white light to hit all of the toddlers at once.

All of the sudden, their evil counterparts were standing next to them, wearing clothes that looked identical to their good original forms, only the clothes were various shades of gray rather than the bright colors worn by their original counterparts. Evil Jesse broke out of the playpen and approached Dil.

"Give me that remote." Evil Jesse hissed, snatching it away from Dil.

"No! It's mine!" Dil cried, trying to grab it back, only evil Jesse was strong, not making it all that easy for him to give up.

In his attempt to grab at the remote, he hit the button again, and because it was now turned around, pointed at him, the beam of white light hit Dil, causing his evil counterpart to appear. Before he knew it, all of the evil counterparts were ganging up on him, throwing toys at his head, finishing off his bottle of milk, and saying mean things to him. The most hurtful was when the evil version of his brother approached him in the bathroom, when he was trying to escape, his mouth wearing an evil smile, and his teeth appearing more like dragon fangs rather than human baby teeth that were coming in.

"You're a horrible little brother, and I wish you had never been born!" Evil Tommy cried, shoving the good Dil into the toilet, and biting his finger.

"Ow!" Dil cried, hoping good Tommy would come and rescue him, but good Tommy couldn't get to him, because he was tied up with some rope at this point, trapped beneath an upside down clothes basket.

"Stop crying!" Evil Tommy growled angrily.

"You hurt me!" Dil cried.

"And I'm glad I did. I live to bite babies who don't do what I say, Ha ha ha ha ha!" Evil Tommy cackled, as he reached up to the flusher on the toilet and pressed it.

Just then, the bowl of the toilet increased, swallowing Dil whole, as he awoke in his crib, crying. Overhearing Dil's cries, Tommy got out of bed and rushed over to his crib to see what was the matter.

"What's wrong Dilly?" Tommy asked.

"Nightscare! Nightscare!" Dil cried in between his sobs.

Tommy looked around the room quickly to see if there was something he could stand on to reach the top of the crib bars. Thinking fast, he scooted the closed box of train tracks over next to the crib, stood up on it, and using his screwdriver, he unlatched the side of the crib, where Dil sat up and climbed out down to the floor. He crawled over to Tommy, who had climbed down from the box at this point.

"Come on Dilly, what happened?" Tommy asked.

"I used Peter's machine to make evil copies of us appear, and the evil version of you hurted me." Dil replied, continuing to cry into Tommy's shoulder.

"It was just a dream Dilly, everything's gonna be okay. I'm here." Tommy said, rubbing his brother's back, trying to get him to calm down.

After a few minutes, Dil calmed down, and Tommy, who was now wide awake, curious about if Nigel Thornberry might be on TV at this time of night, struck up an idea that he thought might interest both, him and Dil.

"Come on Dilly, let's go see if Nigel Strawberry is on TV. That always makes me happy when I can't sleep." Tommy said, heading for the door of the bedroom that led out to the hall with Dil crawling close behind him.

They headed out into the hall and down the stairs to the living room, thankful the TV remote was left on the coffee table. Tommy turned on the TV and to his surprise, it was left on the right channel where Nigel Thornberry's Animal World was airing. He and Dil sat on the floor to watch the show, where Nigel appeared to be in a very dark place, with bats flying around, and another person next to him that neither one of the toddlers recognized.

"Hello, I'm Nigel Thornberry. Today, I come to you all from the Andes mountains in Peru with special guest, Doctor Spinoza to talk about that creature that is very mistaken for being visious and scary, the vampire bat." Nigel said on TV to the viewers.

At the mention of vampire bats however, Dil got scared and started crying again.

"Dilly, it's okay, the bats can't hurt you. They're on TV." Tommy said.

But this wasn't enough. Dil was scared, so Tommy reluctantly turned off the TV, somewhat disappointed that he wouldn't get to watch the rest of Nigel's show, as he was curious to see what would happen, but at the same time, he didn't like seeing his brother so scared and upset. Tommy climbed up on the couch, and Dil, who calmed down a little bit once the TV was turned off, climbed up on to the couch, getting into Tommy's lap as best as he could, seeing he was not that much smaller than Tommy these days.

"It's okay Dilly." Tommy whispered, rubbing Dil's back, as he rested his head against his older brother's torso, closing his eyes and drifting back off to sleep.

Unfortunately, poor Tommy, while he was in a sitting position on the couch, he wasn't exactly in the best position to get to sleep with his little brother lying on top of him, but at the same time, he didn't wish to try to move him and disturb his rest. So the two-year-old sat there, awake the rest of the night. Little did he know that another household was also having a night of nightmares and comfort to get back to sleep ahead of them as well.

At the Finsters, Chuckie was also having a bad dream. In his nightmare, he was playing at the park, wandering around, trying to find Tommy to make up with him, when he approached the monkey bars.

"Tommy!" Chuckie cried out.

"Come and get me Chuckie." Tommy called from up above.

Chuckie looked up to see Tommy swinging like a trapeze circus artist on one of the bars. Then, gazing from where Tommy was swinging, down to the ground, he grew dizzy, about ready to faint.

"Uh, Tommy, I don't know if that's such a good idea. It's so high up. We could get hurted!" Chuckie cried.

Just then, Tommy swung over to the ladder and climbed down halfway, until he was at the level that met the top of Chuckie's head.

"Well, then if you won't play with me, then maybe I should just, eat you instead." Tommy said, not in his normal kid sounding voice, but in a deep, evil sounding voice, similarly to the voice of the monster that once lived under Chuckie's bed before learning it was only his daddy's sweater.

Chuckie cried and screamed, feeling quite terrified at this point.

"What's the matter little Chuckie?" Angelica asked teasingly, coming up behind him.

"T't't't'tommy's… G'g'g'g'gonna… Eat me." Chuckie stammered in between his tears.

"Well, don't you know, Tommy's a can opener." Angelica said.

"What's that?" Chuckie asked, now facing Angelica.

"A can opener is somebody who eats people." Angelica replied.

"But Tommy's my bestest friend." Chuckie cried.

"Was your bestest friend. Yep, don't think he likes you ruining his fun no more. Hope you're more delicious than you are a friend, Hehehahehaheha." Angelica cackled evilly, running off to play on another part of the playground, as Chuckie slowly turned around to stare back up at Tommy, who hadn't moved an inch while he was talking with Angelica.

"Come on Tommy, you'd never eat me, would you?" Chuckie asked, trembling nervously.

"Ha! That red hair looks delicious!" Tommy roared in that deep monsterous voice, as he leaned down towards the top of Chuckie's head, biting off all of his red hair in one swoop, slerping it up like it were spaghetti noodles.

"AAAHHH!" Chuckie screamed, as Tommy bit further into his head, and he awoke in his bed, clutching on to WaWa and Zack for dear life, as he was crying at the top of his lungs.

This awoke Kimi from across the room, who climbed out of her crib and came over to Chuckie and Zack, climbing into his big boy bed and putting an arm around Chuckie's shoulder.

"What's wrong Chuckie?" Kimi asked worriedly.

Chuckie, still with tears streaming down his face, turned towards his sister.

"I had a nightscare where I didn't think playing on the monkey bars was such a good idea, but not liking me trying to protect him, Tommy came after me and tried to… Tried to… Oh I can't say it…" Chuckie stammered nervously.

"Tried to what Chuckie?" Zack asked, now awake and sitting up in bed, staring straight at Chuckie.

"E'e'e'e'eat… M'm'm'me." Chuckie cried, bursting into uncontrollable sobs again.

"Awe, don't cry Chuckie, it was just a dream. Tommy would never do something like that, he's your bestest friend." Kimi said, giving her big brother a hug.

"Kimi's right, even though Tommy did bite you earlier today when you tried to stop him from getting his Reptar wagon back, he cares too much about you. Plus, eating other humans, doesn't sound that tasty to me, and I doubt if he'd find it all that tasty either." Zack said, giving Chuckie a hug.

"Are you sure?" Chuckie asked, finally starting to calm down.

"I'm sure." Zack said with a smile, patting Chuckie gently on the back, as he saw to lying back down, snuggling up with WaWa.

"Yeah Chuckie, everything's gonna be okay." Kimi said, patting her brother's stomach, as she and Zack helped tuck him back in beneath the blankets, and the three-year-old redhead, managed to go back to sleep.

Once Chuckie was asleep, Zack and Kimi turned to each other and smiled.

"You know what Zachary, we make a pretty good team." Kimi said with a smile.

"Mmmm hmmm." Zack said with a smile, nodding his head in agreement, as he climbed down from Chuckie's bed and went over to Kimi's crib, where the two of them climbed over the bars and curled up in her bed together, hugging one another tight and drifting back off to sleep in one another's arms, after Zack tucked Kimi in beneath her blankets, and saved a little bit of blanket for himself.

The following morning, the sun rose bright and early, looking like it would be a beautiful day, or though everyone thought, as Celeste Wehrenberg awoke early to the alarm on her iPhone, ringing on her computer desk. She was so tired, that she forgot to put it on the charger, as she awoke, stumbled over to her desk and turned off the alarm to see that her phone only had ten percent battery left on it. She plugged it in to charge and seeing what time it was, not to mention, she was by herself that morning, not having to get Zack up and ready for the day, she decided to take some time to scan in that pamphlet so she could look at it during breaks throughout her work day, as upon waking up and starting the day, she noticed how much more rested she felt.

" _It sure felt good to sleep in a bed last night._ " Celeste thought to herself, as she saw to starting her day, and thought more about how maybe it would be better, if both, she and Zack went to bed at night in their own beds, minus the television, opposed to what they had been doing for a while now, falling asleep on the couch while watching TV late at night.

Celeste did find that often, she'd sleep in awkward positions on the sofa, resulting in her awakening with a crick in her neck, as she stepped into the shower on this fine morning, being too exhausted to take one the night before, noticing how she didn't feel any pain in her body what so ever.

" _Looks like a bedtime routine is in order for Zack._ " Celeste thought to herself, as she saw to showering and getting dressed and ready for the day.

Back at the Finsters, Chas and Kira awoke to their alarm and peaked into Chuckie and Kimi's room, to see that Zack was curled up in Kimi's crib with her, opposed to where he fell asleep the previous night, curled up next to Chuckie in his bed. Noticing this, Kira turned to her husband and whispered something into his ear.

"How did Zack move from Chuckie's bed to Kimi's crib?" Kira whispered.

"I don't know, but they sure do look cute together." Chas whispered back.

The couple smiled at one another, as Kira took her phone out of the pocket of her bath robe and took a picture of Zack and Kimi sleeping together. Forgetting that Zack's aunt couldn't see the picture, she sent the photo to her in a text, but did place a comment in the text.

"Zack is sleeping with Kimi, curled up together in one another's arms in Kimi's crib. A very cute couple they are." The text read.

Celeste heard her text alert go off on her phone, and after reading the text sent to her by Kira, she smiled.

" _Awe, how sweet. I see my nephew and Kimi becoming good friends._ " Celeste thought to herself, as she saw to getting all ready to go and leaving for work.

After watching the three toddlers sleep for five more minutes, Zack and Kimi curled up together, while Chuckie was over in his bed, cuddling with WaWa, Chas raised his voice and saw to waking everybody up.

"Rise and shine kids!" Chas called, as his son, daughter, and Zack all yawned and stretched, sitting up in their respective beds.

Chas and Kira saw to getting Zack and Kimi's diapers changed, while Chuckie went to use the potty, and everybody saw to getting dressed and starting their day. Before they knew it, the three toddlers were sitting at the kitchen table, with sippy cups of grape juice and bowls of Dummi Bear Sugar Lumps in front of them. Zack took a bite of his cereal, and not caring much for the taste, he swallowed it quickly, not wishing to look rude by spitting it out.

"What is this stuff?" Zack asked.

"It's called Dummi Bear Sugar Lumps!" Kimi replied.

"Do you like it?" Chuckie asked.

"It's okay, I think I like Reptar cereal more, but if you two like it, well then, that's good enough for me." Zack said, politely taking another bite of his cereal, much to Chuckie's surprise.

"You know, you don't gots to eat it if you don't like it." Chuckie said.

"It's the polite thing to do, and I'm a guest in your home. Though I take it I'm not the only one you've had over who doesn't care much for this cereal." Zack commented.

Chuckie shook his head no in response, as he had a mouth full of cereal at this point.

"Let me guess. Is the person who doesn't like this cereal very much two-years-old, gots purple hair, a little brother named Dil, and his name rhymes with mommy?" Zack asked.

"Lucky guess." Chuckie muttered, crossing his arms and glancing away from the table.

Zack could tell that Chuckie was still unhappy with Tommy, so decided to not approach any sort of subject that might bring up his name again, as the three toddlers, finished their breakfast in silence.

After breakfast, Space Trek Babies came on TV, and Zack got his first taste in watching the show. To Chuckie's surprise, he didn't try to grab the remote and change the channel to something else. As soon as the show ended before Chas and Kira came in to gather up the kids to take them over to Tommy's house to meet Peter, Zack turned to Chuckie.

"Wow! I like Space Trek Babies, it's a pretty awesome show! Babies in outside space, now that's, really cool!" Zack commented excitedly.

"You really liked it?" Chuckie asked.

"Uh huh. I'll have to try watching it at my place sometime." Zack said.

"Cool!" Kimi cried, just as Chas and Kira entered the living room with diaper bags, packed lunches, and Zack's overnight bag.

"Time to go to Tommy and Dil's house kids." Chas said.

Chuckie gulped nervously as he took his father's hand, Kimi taking her mother's, and Zack being carried out to the car by Kira, as they saw to leaving, but not without a wet slobbery kiss from Fifi and Pepper at the door, as they licked Zack's foot and Chuckie and Kimi's hands, telling them goodbye before going off to take their morning naps.

At Tommy's house, the poor two-year-old never really got a wink of sleep after making Dil comfortable on the couch, as he saw the first raise of sunlight come into the sky, and heard footsteps coming down the stairs, and Spike and Spiffi barking outside, wanting to come inside for their breakfast. Even though there was a doggy door, somehow when they were hungry for breakfast, neither one of the dogs thought to use that entrance to come inside, wanting to be let in at the back door by the hand that fed them instead. Didi came over to the couch and noticed her two boys curled up together.

"Wow you two are up early." Didi commented, lifting Dil out of Tommy's lap, as he yawned, stretched, and opened his eyes, smiling up at his mommy.

"Yeah, though I wonder when they awoke. Maybe it wouldn't be a bad idea to install that child proof lock on the doorknob after all." Stu said in between yawns, heading into the kitchen to let the dogs in to feed them their breakfast.

Tommy, feeling very sleepy, stood up from the couch and walked slowly into the kitchen behind his mother, who placed Dil into his high chair, while Tommy made himself comfortable in a regular chair at the kitchen table.

He couldn't help but notice that something felt off, as he walked slowly into the kitchen. Sure, he felt very tired after being awake most of the night, but something else felt off too, he just, couldn't place his finger on what it was. Stu placed down a bowl of Reptar cereal in front of Tommy, while Didi fed Dil some oatmeal, and gave them both sippy cups of red juice. No sooner had they started eating their breakfast, when the doorbell rang.

"I'll get it." Didi said, heading off to answer the door to find Peter standing there.

"Good morning Didi." Peter greeted.

"Wow! You sure are early." Didi said.

"Well, I was up and I couldn't remember when you and Stu had to leave for your arrons and doctor's appointments, so decided I'd get here before the rest of the crew." Peter said.

"Oh, Stu's annual physical isn't for another hour, but come on in. The kids are just eating their breakfast." Didi said, stepping aside to let Peter into the house, before closing the front door behind him.

Peter went into the living room and took a seat on the couch, while Stu fed Dil his oatmeal in the kitchen, and Tommy slowly ate his Reptar cereal. However, he knew something wasn't quite right, when the tasty sugary cereal went down his throat and entered his stomach with a loud, painful thud. While he put cereal into his mouth, he felt like he had swallowed rocks when it hit his stomach.

And this, ends chapter 11. What's going on with Tommy? And how will the day go at the park? Find out, come the next chapter!

Author's Note: In the event you were confused, Angelica meant to call Tommy a cannable in Chuckie's nightmare, but said can opener instead, similarly to how she called Dangreen tangerine in The First Cut episode, getting her words mixed up. I hope this chapter turned out okay. I found myself getting writer's block during parts of it, so I hope I did okay. Also, references made to the Rugrats episodes, Farewell, My Friend, The Odd Couple, and Opposites Attract as well as references to The Rugrats Movie and Rugrats in Paris were made during this chapter, as well as The Wild Thornberrys episode, Blood Sisters, as the episode of Nigel Thornberry's Animal World that Tommy and Dil started to watch on TV was the episode filmed during the course of the Blood Sisters episode. Anyway, I do hope you all enjoyed that chapter, and I hope to have the next chapter, up sometime soon.


	12. The Curse of Zack's Lucky Marble

Author's Note: Before we begin this chapter, I should state that the OC's of Kai and Kya belong to Vinzgirl. Figured I'd cover myself, since they weren't mentioned in the disclaimer at the start of the story, but yet, I've decided to have them make an appearance in this chapter. And at the end of the chapter, I'll explain when the gang will reunite with them in my universe, since obviously, I haven't used them in any of my other stories, and this story takes place early on in terms of my so called timeline. With that out of the way, let's move on to the chapter!

Chapter 12, The Curse of Zack's Lucky Marble

What felt like a lifetime later, Tommy finished his entire bowl of Reptar cereal, though to him, he felt like he had eaten an entire bowl of rocks, and drinking the red juice to wash it down didn't seem to help much. Once breakfast was finished, Tommy and Dil were dressed by Didi before she and Stu left for their day of arrons and doctor's appointments, and before they knew it, they were left alone with Peter.

They were playing in the living room, when Peter noticed that Tommy was acceptionally quiet, looking at a picture book while Dil was crawling on the floor, playing with a dump truck. Worried, Peter went over to Tommy, who he could tell looked exhausted.

"Did you have another rough night Tommy?" Peter asked.

Tommy silently shook his head yes.

"You know Tommy, not going to bed all night is going to catch up to you. You could get sick from doing this." Peter warned him.

Tommy gasp at his comment. It hit him what was going on. He surely didn't feel good, but before he could attempt to say anything, the doorbell rang, and Peter went off to get it. Turns out the gang had arrived. Chas and Kira were dropping off Chuckie, Kimi and Zack, Betty was dropping off Phil and Lil after seeing Howard off to work, and Laura was dropping off Jesse.

"You all have a nice day we'll see you late this afternoon after you get off of work. Chances are Stu and Didi will be back by then." Peter said, waving goodbye to the kids parents as they headed off.

"Bye bye Peter." Laura called, as she walked down the steps and down the sidewalk back to her car.

Once all of the parents were out of sight, Peter turned to the gang of toddlers that stood before him in the entry hallway.

"Well kids, I've gotta go get Tommy and Dil, and round up the Reptar wagon from the garage where Stu timed it out from Tommy yesterday, but is everybody ready for a fun filled day of playing and adventures at the park?" Peter asked.

"Yeah!" All of the toddlers before him cheered in unison.

In the living room, Tommy overheard his friends cheering with excitement in the hall, and swallowed hard, biting his lip. Normally, he'd be cheering right along with them, but he felt so miserable at that point, he'd just assume lie down. However, after what he put everybody through the previous day, he wasn't about to ruin everybody's fun, so he quietly walked towards the exit of the living room into the hall where his friends were gathered, and came up behind Jesse. Dil looked up from playing with his dump truck to see that Tommy was heading out of the living room, so crawled in that direction, approaching Lil when entering the entry hall. Peter looked in their direction and smiled.

"Well, looks like I don't have to go gather up Tommy and Dil after all, they're here. So, let's go everyone." Peter said, opening up the front door and leading the kids to the driveway, where he got the Reptar wagon out of the garage, closed the door with the spare remote that Stu and Didi let him borrow along with a set of house keys, and before everybody knew it, they were headed for the park.

Soon, Peter was pulling the Reptar wagon behind him down the street towards the neighborhood park, as several of the toddlers struck up conversation with one another. Though Tommy and Chuckie remained very quiet, as Chuckie was still feeling a bit nervous about approaching Tommy, while Tommy, didn't exactly feel very good, nor was he up to talking much.

"So how was your sleepover at Chuckie's?" Phil asked Zack.

"It was great! And, Chuckie was right! A bedtime routine is apportant, and I never realized how much more comfortable it felt to sleep in a bed than it has been sleeping on the floor until I waked up next to Kimi this morning." Zack said, blushing a smile in Kimi's direction.

Kimi smiled back and nodded her head in agreement.

"Have you ever slept in a bed before Zack?" Lil asked.

"Yeah, but it was in a baby-baby bed before my aunty adopted me when I still lived with my mommy, daddy, and my daddy's parents." Zack replied.

"Oh." Jesse, Dil, Phil, Lil, and Kimi replied in unison.

Before they knew it, they had arrived at the gates of the neighborhood park.

"We're here kids." Peter announced, as he entered the gates of the park and found a grassy spot near a bench to free the toddlers from the Reptar wagon.

"Great! Maybe I can go on a hunt for my missing lucky marble I losted yesterday." Zack said.

Tommy and Dil had raised eyebrows, not knowing what he was talking about, as they were still visiting their grandpa Boris and grandma Minca when all of this went down, but the rest of the gang knew what Zack was talking about, and Kimi turned to him with a look of concern.

"I forgetted what we did yesterday." Kimi said.

"Don't worry Kimi, all we gotta do is retrace our steps, and surely, I'll find it." Zack said, climbing out of the Reptar wagon on to the grass, with Kimi following behind him.

"Let's go!" Kimi cried, as she grabbed Zack's hand, and they went off towards the slide.

However, Jesse and Chuckie caught up to them, as did Phil and Lil, and Tommy and Dil weren't too far behind. For a brief moment, forgetting about their quest to find Zack's lucky marble, all of the toddlers took a turn on the slide, except for Tommy, who sat down near a tree and watched. Chuckie almost went and sat next to Tommy by the tree when he was finished taking his turn, but decided against it. Noticing him standing in the middle of the pathway between the tree and the slide, Kimi approached her older brother. Turning in a different direction, she spotted a teeter-totter across the way.

"The teeter-totter sounds like fun! Come on Chuckie." Kimi said, grabbing her brother's hand, as they ran towards the teeter-totter and got on either end, playing together.

After Phil and Lil took their turn down the slide, Phil spotted a deserted sandbox out of the corner of his eye, and he and Lil ran in that direction, leaving Zack and Jesse as the only two left to go hunting for Zack's lucky marble, and Dil to crawl through the grass, being fascinated by a bug he saw crawling through the grass, as he got to following it, completely oblivious to the rest of the group. Remembering that they did play in a sandbox for a time the previous day, Zack and Jesse caught up to Phil and Lil, who were digging wholes. Tommy however, had some other business to take care of.

" _I've gotta talk to Chuckie._ " Tommy thought to himself, slowly standing up and approaching the teeter-totter where Chuckie and Kimi were playing.

As Tommy headed over there, he couldn't help but notice a headache was starting to come on, and he was starting to feel twinges of pain throughout his entire body. He made it over to the middle of the teeter-totter, where he nearly collapsed, when Kimi looked over in his direction.

"Hi Tommy, wanna see-saw with us?" Kimi asked.

However, Tommy didn't really feel much up to playing on the teeter-totter, he only came over to talk to Chuckie. He shook his head no, which Chuckie saw, but feeling nervous around Tommy, as he wanted to continue to see-saw, but not wishing to start up an argument, possibly getting bitten or hurt worser this time, he climbed down from the teeter-totter opposite from where Tommy was standing.

"Where are you going Chuckie?" Kimi asked.

"Uh, Kimi, I think we'd better go help Zack find his lucky marble." Chuckie said, grabbing his sister's hand, causing her to nearly tumble off of her end of the teeter-totter.

She landed on her feet just in time, as the Finster siblings ran off in the direction of the sandbox where Phil, Lil, Jesse, and Zack had been previously playing, but they had moved on to some monkey bars past the sandbox by this point, leaving a sad, sick Tommy behind.

At that moment, Tommy's legs gave out, as he collapsed against the side of the teeter-totter, and a tear silently trickled down his cheek. Not wanting anybody to see, he quickly wiped the tear away, trying to decide if he ought to go catch up with Chuckie and Kimi, when out of nowhere, a set of what looked like to be dark skinned paternal twins showed up across from him at the teeter-totter. One of them was a little boy with short black hair, dressed in a blue short sleeve shirt with a picture of a shark on the front, kacky shorts, white socks and red sneakers, while the little girl who was next to him had the same short black hair pulled back in a pink ponytail, wearing a purple short sleeve shirt with a picture of Elsa on it from Frozen, along with surrounding prints of white icecickles, a pair of bright pink shorts that matched the ponytail in her hair, a pair of yellow socks and a pair of green sneakers.

"Were you using this teeter-totter?" The little boy asked.

"No." Tommy muttered, sounding very sad.

"What's wrong?" The little girl asked, noticing Tommy's sad expression.

"Nothing." Tommy replied, trying to put on a fake smile like he did in Bow Wow Wedding Vows, but he couldn't bring himself to even creep these new kids out, as the sad expression never left his face.

"Well then, give it up already, and let it go!" The little girl said, before she cleared her throat and started bursting into song, much to the little boy's annoyance.

 _The snow glows white on the mountain tonight_

 _Not a footprint to be seen._

 _A kingdom of isolation,_

 _and it looks like I'm the Queen_

 _The wind is howling like this swirling storm inside_

 _Couldn't keep it in;_

 _Heaven knows I've tried_

 _Don't let them in,_

 _don't let them see_

 _Be the good girl you always have to be_

 _Conceal, don't feel,_

 _don't let them know_

 _Well now they know_

 _Let it go, let it go_

 _Can't hold it back anymore_

 _Let it go, let it go_

 _Turn away and slam the door_

 _I don't care_

 _what they're going to say_

 _Let the storm rage on._

 _The cold never bothered me anyway_

 _It's funny how some distance_

 _Makes everything seem small_

 _And the fears that once controlled me_

 _Can't get to me at all_

 _It's time to see what I can do_

 _To test the limits and break through_

 _No right, no wrong, no rules for me,_

 _I'm free!_

 _Let it go, let it go_

 _I am one with the wind and sky_

 _Let it go, let it go_

 _You'll never see me cry_

 _Here I stand_

 _And here I'll stay_

 _Let the storm rage on_

 _My power flurries through the air into the ground_

 _My soul is spiraling in frozen fractals all around_

 _And one thought crystallizes like an icy blast_

 _I'm never going back, the past is in the past_

 _Let it go, let it go_

 _And I'll rise like the break of dawn_

 _Let it go, let it go_

 _That perfect girl is gone_

 _Here I stand_

 _In the light of day_

 _Let the storm rage on_

 _The cold never bothered me anyway!_

Once she finished singing, the little boy spoke up.

"Don't mind my sister, she's obsessed with Frozen." The little boy said.

"I am not!" The little girl snapped, sticking out her tongue at the little boy.

"My name is Kai by the way, and this is my twin sister Kya." Kai said, putting his hand out for Tommy to shake.

"We're from the Phillip Beans." Kya added, also holding out her hand for Tommy to shake.

"Nice to meet you guys." Tommy said, still sounding down, as he shook their hands.

"We didn't catch your name." Kai said.

"I'm Tommy. Where are the Phillip Beans anyways?" Tommy asked.

"It's a country far far away, kind of like Pokyo where Reptar lives." Kai replied.

"Oh." Tommy replied, slumping down in the grass.

"So, what do you like to do for fun?" Kya asked.

"Yeah, do you like playing pirates? Cuz I was looking for somebody to play with." Kai added.

Tommy really didn't feel like playing anything, but he didn't wish to let these new friends of his down, so he staggered to his feet and looked in the direction of the tunnel that was across the playground.

"Yeah I like playing pirates. Why not go looking for the buried treasure. I'll be Long John Silver and you two can be my squirly crew. Follow me." Tommy replied, just as he started walking towards the direction of the tunnel.

Kai and Kya followed their new friend, noticing several times along the way, he'd flinch in pain every so often, as Tommy felt twinges of pain in his tummy or all throughout his body, growing more and more exhausted by the second.

"Are you okay?" Kya asked worriedly.

"I'm fine. Come on you two, the secret cave is up ahead." Tommy said, getting his new friends back on track, as they reached the opening of the tunnel, the same one Tommy and his friends entered in The Braveliest Baby episode.

As Tommy approached the tunnel, which they were pretending was a cave, something caught his eye. It was round and white, like a large marble. However, another twinge of pain serged throughout his entire body at that point, as Tommy flinched again.

"Are you sure you're all right?" Kai asked.

Tommy spun around and glared angrily at him.

"I'm fine! Come on, we've gots treasure to find, and I think I saw it." Tommy said, turning back towards the treasure and inching his way towards the marble, which unknown to him was the marble that Zack had lost the previous day.

"That kid won't stop at anything!" Kya whispered into her brother's ear.

"I know. He's determined to gather up some treasure and finish his game, despite how he might feel, as I don't know about you, but he certainly looked sick and tired to me, like he needs a nappy." Kai whispered back into his sister's ear.

At that moment, Tommy reached the marble, where he picked it up off of the ground.

"I founded it, the treasure." Tommy said in a weak voice, as he collapsed to the floor of the cave.

Kai and Kya gasp upon seeing this sight. Tommy, feeling just as miserable as ever, wanted to cry at that very moment for help, but in his head, he kept hearing Timmy Mcnulty's voice playing over and over again from the night before.

" _Pickles is a cry baby, and I'm gonna make sure everybody at the park knows about it_." Tommy heard Timmy's voice say in his head.

Not knowing if these two kids knew about that, or wanting them to laugh at him, the purple haired two-year-old lay motionless on the floor of the tunnel, aching too much to move, as his eyes slammed shut, and the marble fell out of his hand and started rolling through the tunnel. Kai and Kya ran after the runaway marble, oblivious to Tommy passing out, just as Zack, Jesse, Dil, Phil, Lil, Chuckie and Kimi approached the opposite end of the tunnel. Kya picked up the marble, just as Kai, who was nearly out of breath, caught up behind her, and she approached Zack at the entrance of the opposite end of the tunnel.

"My lucky marble! Thank you! I forgotted I lefted it in here." Zack said, grabbing the marble out of Kya's hand.

"Oh wow, I didn't know it was yours and that you had losted it, but I'm glad we were able to return it to you. My name's Kya, and this is my brother Kai. We were playing pirates with a kid named Tommy, and he led us here." Kya said.

"Well my name's Zack, and these are my friends, Dil, Phil, Lil, Chuckie, Jesse and Kimi." Zack introduced, pointing to each member of the group.

"We know Tommy too." Kimi commented.

"Yeah, he's my big brother, but, where is he?" Dil asked, glancing around, not seeing Tommy nearby.

"That's funny, I thought he was right behind us." Kya said, turning around, Kai doing the same, as they glanced back to see that Tommy was still passed out on the floor.

"Oh no! The marble must be cursed!" Kai exclaimed in a panic.

"If it's cursed, then how come I didn't pass out on the floor upon picking it up?" Kya asked.

"I don't know, maybe babies from the Phillip Beans are sealed from its evil power." Kai suggested.

"Well, it is my lucky marble, but I'm pretty sure something else is going on with Tommy. Come on you guys, we'd better go see if he's okay." Zack said, inching his way further into the tunnel towards Tommy, as Jesse, Kimi, Phil, Lil, and Dil followed behind him.

Chuckie, not wishing to get too close to Tommy, or end up lost in the dark scary tunnel, remained outside the entrance in the daylight. That is, until gray clouds covered the sun and it started to rain.

"Oh no you guys, it's raining! AAAHHH!" Chuckie screamed, running into the tunnel, crashing into Jesse who was standing near Tommy's head, the rest of the toddlers, gathered around Tommy, trying to shake him awake.

"Tommy? You're awake?" Phil asked, shaking him, but it was no use.

The toddler remained passed out on the floor, just as Kai and Kya heard an all-too familiar voice in the distance.

"Kai! Kya! Where are you?" Their mother called in the distance.

"Uh, I'm sorry you guys, but we can't stay, our mommy's calling us." Kya said apologetically.

"Yeah, I think she wants to take us home since it's raining." Kai added.

"See ya." Kai and Kya said in unison, as they exited out of the tunnel in the original direction where they had come prior to Tommy passing out.

"Bye!" All of the other toddlers except Chuckie and passed out Tommy cried in unison.

Meanwhile, Peter, who had been playing a game on his phone, noticed a rain drop hit his head. Realizing this, he got up from the park bench where he had been sitting, and started searching the park for the toddlers. Just as Kai and Kya exited the tunnel, and ran in the direction of their mom, who was standing near a picnic table not too far away beneath an umbrella, Peter rounded the corner. Figuring the toddlers might have taken shelter in that tunnel to get out of the rain, he approached the opening where he saw Tommy collapsed with all of the other kids surrounding him, thankful his gut feeling was right.

"Well kids, it looks like we'll need to be heading back to Tommy and Dil's house. It's raining." Peter said.

"Yeah, and Tommy's not doing so good." Lil commented.

"What?" Peter asked in surprise, as he bent down and picked up the passed out toddler.

He tried to get him to wake up too, but without much success either. He also felt his forehead, and noticed he was burning up.

"Good thing I got here, everybody, get into the Reptar wagon, we need to get home right away!" Peter cried, putting Tommy beneath the outer garmet of his gray Confederate uniform to keep him warm and mostly dry, while pulling the wagon with the other hand, the other toddlers, now inside of it.

Meanwhile, Zack stashed his lucky marble away in his diaper for safe keeping, hoping to never lose it again, but also thankful that Tommy with the help of two new friends he had made found it.

Peter got the toddlers back to Tommy and Dil's house and led them inside to the kitchen, where he got towels out of the downstairs bathroom and had them dry themselves off, while he placed Tommy down on the couch in the living room. Once the toddlers were all dried off, Peter had them come sit on the floor in the living room where he put Curious George on the TV via Hulu, and once he had an episode of the show going, he went back into the kitchen to take care of some important business. He then went back into the kitchen where he picked up the house phone, and looked for the speed dile button to call the Carmichael's house.

"I hope Doctor Lucy Carmichael has a day off so she can come look at Tommy." Peter said to himself, as he heard ringing on the other end of the phone, waiting for somebody to answer, since neither Stu or Didi had returned yet, and he wasn't about to try to take a bunch of toddlers to the hospital or the doctor's office for that matter, and the Carmichaels lived right across the street.

Meanwhile, in the living room, Tommy, who had passed out while playing pirates in the tunnel at the park, opened his eyes slightly to notice he was no longer at the park, but rather, on the couch in his living room, feeling quite tired, and shivering something awful, as his teeth were chattering. He noticed his friends and younger brother were sitting nearby on the floor, watching Curious George on TV, but the miserable toddler lay there on the couch, feeling quite sick and very confused, noticing he had somehow been transported while he was passed out from one place to another.

And this, ends chapter 12. So what's going on with Tommy? Find out, come the next chapter.

Author's Note: Well, we only have three chapters left to this story, and hopefully, I won't take too long to get them up. Also, I hope I did okay with Kai and Kya's characters here, and FYI, the gang will see them one more time over the course of the year in which this story takes place, as they'll be showing up in my story, Zack's Birthday Surprise, but after that, they won't see them on a regular basis until sometime during Pre-School Daze (Reboot), when they join their class at sometime past the start of the school year. Also, to anybody who hasn't checked out Vinzgirl's story, Kai and Kya, they're from the Philipeens, and Reptar is obviously from Tokyo, but I had Kai and Kya say their home country incorrectly on purpose, because of being toddlers who like everybody else, gets their words wrong, and calling Tokyo, Pokyo, was taken from Runaway Reptar, when Tommy and crew pronounced it in that incorrect fashion. And, it looks like I got this chapter finished in time, as I just looked at my phone to see a text from my mom stating that my nephew is visiting for the day at least. So I'm not sure when I'll have another chapter released in this story, but hopefully, it's sooner than later, like within the next day or so.


	13. Tommy's Diagnosis

Author's Note: Before we begin this chapter, if you're a fan of Curious George, in particular, the episodes, Inside Story and Toot Toot Tootsie Goodbye, then I think you'll like this chapter. Also, just to cover myself, I do not own Curious George or its characters, they're the property of their original creaters. With that said, on with the next chapter of this story!

Chapter 13, Tommy's Diagnosis

Peter waited for another minute for somebody to pick up at the Carmichael residence, when his prayers were finally answered.

"Hello?" Lucy's voice said from the other line.

"Doctor Lucy Carmichael! Thank goodness you're home! Listen, this is King Peter Albany here, and I'm across the street babysitting Tommy, Dil, and their friends at the Pickles place. Tommy seems to be quite sick and I could use a doctor to come look at him and see what's the matter." Peter said.

"Well you're in luck. I'm off for today but I'd be happy to come take a look at Tommy. Let me just let Randy and Alisa know that I must attend to a medical emergency, and I'll be on my way." Lucy replied.

"Thank you so very much!" Peter said into the phone, relieved as he hung it up and sat down at the kitchen table, waiting for Lucy to arrive.

Meanwhile, Tommy was lying on the couch, feeling just miserable, as he turned his head in the direction of the TV. It was playing an episode of Curious George, one of his and Dil's favorite shows, Dil's mostly, but their other friends liked it too. And in fact, Chuckie, Kimi, Lil, Phil, Jesse, Zack, and Dil were all sitting on the floor, silently watching the show. Tommy was about to get up and go approach his friends, when the doorbell rang. Peter got up from the kitchen table and went to answer it to find that Lucy Carmichael came in the nick of time.

"I told you I'd be right over. So where's the patient?" Lucy asked, upon stepping into the house.

"Follow me." Peter said, walking into the living room where Tommy was lying on the couch, Lucy following close behind him.

She walked over to the couch and perched herself down on the edge, glancing in Tommy's direction with a small smile, as she didn't want to make the young toddler feel uncomfortable.

"Hello Tommy it's Susie's mommy. I'm just gonna check up on you and see what's going on. You don't seem to be feeling too well huh?" Lucy asked, as Tommy let out a painful moan, while Lucy felt his forehead and checked him out.

"Now say Ah." Lucy said, as Tommy opened his mouth and she shined a flashlight down his throat.

"Well, he doesn't seem to have Strep, which is one of the viruses going around. He might have the stomach flu though, let's see if that's what's going on here." Lucy said, pressing on his stomach, where Tommy felt a huge jolt of pain.

The two-year-old toddler let out a yelp of pain upon Lucy pressing on his stomach. She then took his temperature with a thermometer that went in his ear.

"Wow! You are burning up. One-hundred-and-one." Lucy said, upon removing the thermometer from his ear and reading out what it said.

"So what's the diagnosis?" Peter asked, who was sitting nearby in one of the easy chairs.

"He definitely has the stomach flu that's going around. The symptoms include a high feaver, serious cases of fatigue, vomiting, diarrhea, and dizziness. He might also experience aches and pains throughout his body. Where are Stu and Didi today?" Lucy asked.

"They had places to go, but when they return, I'll be sure to notify them of what's going on." Peter said.

"Well, tell them that Tommy is sick with this bug, and the best things for him right now, are plenty of liquids so he doesn't get dehydrated, and lots of rest. Has he had any other symptoms?" Lucy asked.

"So far, no. Only passing out at the park and seeming quite lethargic and sluggish since we returned home. He's also shivering too." Peter said.

"Chills are from the fever. I can give him a dose of Tylonol before I leave, and if the high fever persists, or he starts to not be able to hold anything down, a bath in cold water ought to help bring down the fever." Lucy said.

"Got it." Peter said, writing everything down for Stu and Didi on a notepad so they would have a written record of the house call from Dr. Carmichael.

"Also, it should be known that the cases that have been breaking out around here can last up to six days before the person is fully recovered and feeling back to themselves, but most symptoms are at their worst over the first three days." Lucy said to Peter, before turning her attention back to Tommy, who now had a blanket tightly wrapped around him.

"Tommy sweetie, you feel better now. Maybe Susie and I will stop by in a couple of days and see how you're doing." Lucy said, patting Tommy on the top of the head, before heading towards the front door to leave.

Once Peter and Lucy had left the room, Tommy turned his gaze back to the television, to see what episode of Curious George was on now. It was now airing the episode, Inside Story, where George gets sick with a cold and has a dream where he goes inside his body, and meets Toots, the germ that sings the blues, and is making him sick. He's flying around through his body in a spaceship piloted by Gnocchi, Chef Spaghetti's cat.

"Oooh!" Tommy said to himself, as his eyes slammed shut, drifting back off to sleep, where he had an interesting dream.

Tommy's eyes opened to find he was looking directly at himself, but he didn't see a mirror nearby.

" _Am I back in Mirrorland again_?" Tommy thought to himself, as the version of himself, who was sleeping, took a breath through his mouth, sucking Tommy inside.

Just like in the Curious George episode, Tommy found himself, standing in his mouth. The slippery surface of his tongue was beneath his bare feet, and just like it was for George, his mouth was like a huge, echoing cave.

"Now, how to get past my mouth." Tommy said to himself, as he looked around for a mode of transportation.

Would Gnocchi be carrying him in a spaceship too? Shortly after asking his question, it was answered, when a white airplane flew into the mouth, piloted by Spike.

"Wow!" Tommy exclaimed, climbing into the airplane next to Spike, who was at the controls.

"I didn't know you could fly a airplane Spike, but I should have knowed, my bestest doggy friend can do anything." Tommy commented, as his ears picked up a noise.

However, it wasn't the sound of singing like it was in George's case. So he knew it couldn't be Toots in there. Besides, he knew that Toots had been destroyed when Prefessor Wiseman washed her hands in a later episode, Toot, Toot, Tootsie Goodbye, when George had to help his friend, The Man with the Yellow Hat get better. So what was the loud clatter Tommy was hearing? It sounded like it was coming from below where they were at the moment.

"Spike, fly me to the noise." Tommy instructed.

Spike pushed a lever on the controls of the airplane, which sent the plane flying through Tommy's asophigus and down into his stomach, where the loud clattering noises were unbarable. Tommy peered out a window of the plane to see what the noise was. There were piles upon piles of rocks floating around his stomach, and somebody was having fun hitting the piles of rocks, making them collide into one another. Curious, Tommy climbed out of the airplane and making his way across the piles of rocks, he found the source of the noise in terms of who was making it. Startled, the strange blobby like creatures came out of hiding, standing on top of a pile of rocks, as Tommy looked them in the eye.

" _This looks like Toots, but it can't be! So, who's hurting me and making me sick?_ " Tommy asked himself, as the blob cleared his throat and spoke up.

"Well well well, who do we have here?" The blob asked.

"Hi, I'm Tommy, and this is my tummy." Tommy said.

"I know! You see, I thought we were going to be in big trouble when we heard the motor of a flying vehicle coming our way. I thought it was going to be that pesky monky my cousin Toots told me about before he was destroyed down the sink drain when some lady named Professor Wiseman washed her hands. But while he was destroyed, well, somebody had to take over his job of making people sick, it's the law. So, allow me to introduce myself. My name is, Boopity Bop Bop, but you can call me, Bop for short, and along with me are the all too familiar Germettes, who use to be lead by Toots. And you may be wondering, why I am not singing. I don't like to sing. Instead, I like to use magic on my victims. See? Everything you've eaten today and will be eating for a very long time, will be turned to rocks, like that bowl of Reptar cereal you had for breakfast." Boopity Bop Bop explained, as Tommy glanced around and saw what he was talking about.

Glancing around, he noticed that the Reptar cereal flakes he had eaten for breakfast, still looked like Reptar cereal, only they were rocks rather than the sweet sugary morsals he had put into his mouth originally.

"No wonder my tummy hurts! Bop, why did you do this to me? It's not nice to hurt peoples." Tommy protested.

"Ah, well that's my job, the late and great Toots is counting on me." Bop replied.

"Well, Toots yourself. You're not gonna hurt my body no more!" Tommy protested, picking up a rock and throwing it at Bop's head.

Unfortunately, the rock phased right through Boopity Bop Bop, not feeling it at all.

"Heheheahhehahehaheha, did you really think just telling me that I was no longerwelcome here would get me to leave? Don't think that's gonna work Tommy, you'd better do better than that." Bop cackled.

"Then I'll, I'll, take you out myself!" Tommy cried, grabbing for Boopity Bop Bop, but Bop disappeared behind another pile of rocks, before Tommy could get him.

It was obvious that this slippery eel of a germ was not going to be as easy to get out of his body as he thought. Thinking fast, he climbed back into his airplane next to Spike in the cockpit, and got a brilliant idea.

"Spike! Follow that germ!" Tommy instructed, as Spike worked another lever on the controls with his paws, and flew the plane forward, catching up to Bop and the Germettes.

"Ha ha ha, don't think chasing me with that airplane is going to do any good Tommy." Bop cackled from behind another pile of rocks, as it kept playing hide and seek, as Tommy and Spike in their plane kept dodging behind each pile, trying to catch up with him.

Bop traveled through Tommy's entire body, where he followed with the airplane, as he proceeded to show Tommy all of the ways he could make him not feel well. Cleaning his throat with feather dusters, which would equal a scratchy throat, turning the wax inside his ears into rocks, which equaled an ear infection, and fever was caused by putting Tommy's internal thermasstat on full blast. This was located in the back of Tommy's head, and the thermostat looked just like the one he played with on the wall in the Let it Snow Rugrats episode to try to make it snow, only it was set to hot rather than the cold hair conditioner as Tommy called it.

"See Tommy? It's not so easy to get rid of me now. And just watch, I can even make your entire body hurt." Bop said, showing Tommy the blood stream, where an army of white blood cells, which looked like several versions of Tommy dressed in uniforms that looked like Peter's, only they were white instead of gray, had miniature versions of Erebus were stabbing at Tommy's bones and muscles repeatedly.

"When we hear you let out cries of pain and moans, we know we're doing our job right." Bop explained, leading Tommy back to the digestive system, where a test tube sat in the large intestons, filled with a brown substance.

"Mud?" Tommy asked, upon seeing the brown substance in the test tube.

"Oh no no no no, that's not mud Tommy, that's poop! But not regular poop, it's the runny kind. You'll be getting diaper changes galore like you wouldn't believe." Bop said, as they heard footsteps approaching the opening to Tommy's stomach.

"Hurry! Another intruder has entered the body!" Bop instructed the Germettes, who all went back to Tommy's stomach, where Reptar had recently entered.

"Reptar?" Tommy asked, upon him and Spike catching up to the germs to see who stood before them.

"Oh no, looks like you just ate a Reptar bar. I should know, he's always shedding his green skin upon entering the body. How else would your tongue turn green of course from eating these delicious treats." Bop said, raising his magic wand.

"What are you gonna do with that? Not hurt Reptar I hope. He's a hero." Tommy said.

"Maybe to you, he's a delicious chocolaty hero that fulfills your junk food craving, but to me, he's another nice, giant rock for my ever growing collection! Ha ha ha ha ha!" Bop cackled, as he raised his wand over his head, and waved it in the Reptar bar's direction.

Tommy thought maybe he could try to fly in front of Reptar, but it was too late. A mist of blue smoke filled the air, and before they knew it, a giant rock statue of Reptar towered high above them, pressing on the walls of the stomach. Just then, the pressure caused an earthquake, which shook Tommy's body violently.

"Uh oh, looks like it's gonna blow. My rock collections are known for causing earthquakes, exiting the body in the form of nasty liquid." Bop said, as just that happened.

Everything inside Tommy's stomach was launched upward, including the airplane carrying Tommy and Spike, as he awoke from the dream, hieving and hacking, about ready to throw up. All of the sudden, he found himself, sitting up on the living room couch, tossing his cookies everywhere, making a huge mess.

"Oh my goodness! Hurry Stu!" Didi cried, running into the living room to her sick child.

Tommy looked around and didn't see Peter, or his little friends anywhere, and the television had long since been turned off. While he had been asleep, post Lucy's leaving, at a point, Stu and Didi returned from their doctor's appointments and running arrons, and Peter called everybody's parents and guardians to come pick up their kids. And once everybody had headed home, he had put Dil upstairs in his crib for a nap, and got him settled down just as Stu and Didi returned home. He then presented the information to them about Tommy and left for home himself. Now, there Tommy was, surrounded in a puddle of his own vomit as his parents saw to cleaning up the mess, and Stu picked him up.

"Come on Champ, let's go get you cleaned up." Stu said, carrying Tommy upstairs, where he saw to giving him a bath.

The poor toddler didn't feel well, and he now knew it was all Boopity Bop and the Germette's falt. Only one question remained though, how to get rid of Bop. Hopefully, he could go back to bed and have another talk with him, once his bath was over. Not wanting to take a bath, he cried and screamed, splashing water everywhere, much to Stu's irritation, as he got all wet.

"Tommy! Stop that!" Stu scolded, but his son wouldn't pay attention, as he continued to splash everywhere, getting the entire bathroom wet.

Eventually, Stu had Tommy cleaned up, and in his Reptar pajamas and a fresh diaper. Then, he put him down in his bed, shut out the lights and left the room, where Tommy immediately fell back to sleep, not feeling up to much else. He started dreaming again, and this time, he was back inside his stomach, which was now empty, thanks to throwing up earlier. Bop and the Germettes approached him, smiling a victory smile.

"Come on Bop, what does it take to get rid of you and make me all better?" Tommy asked.

"You didn't like throwing up? Well not to worry, I've got another surprise for you that I think you'll like more. How about some throwing up and diarrhea, all at the same time!" Bop said.

"No! I want you out!" Tommy hissed, as Spike let out a growl.

"Don't think your dumb dog can help me." Bop said.

Spike jumped out of the airplane and tried to attack the germs, but just like what happened earlier when Tommy tried to hurt them with the rocks that were once food, Spike phased through them.

"We have no business with animals. That's why humans and animals can't catch stuff from one another." Bop explained, as Spike climbed back into the cockpit.

"What will it take? Please, I don't wanna be sick no more!" Tommy cried.

"You did this to yourself Tommy. I love infesting babies who don't follow the rules and listen to their friends crazy ideas. Now you must pay the price, and until you learn your lesson, you're stuck, with me." Bop said, as another earthquake started to take place.

However, this earthquake effected all aspects of Tommy's body, as liquid came out both, his mouth and his bottom, and this time, the airplane went out the other end, as he drowned in diarrhea and pee inside his diaper. Upon drowning, he woke up, noticing it was nighttime outside, and feeling a great deal of pain in his body, as well as a wet diaper full of diarrhea, and once again, throwing up in bed. Obviously, not nearly as much this time as the last time because he hadn't had anything new to eat since he went down for another nap, but he was feeling so miserable, that he was crying non-stop.

Dil, who had also been taking a nap across the room late into the afternoon and early evening, awoke in his crib to the noise.

"Tommy?" Dil cried worriedly, but his older brother was still crying in pain, not hearing Dil calling his name.

Thinking fast, he sat up, and raddled the bars of his crib, hoping that would get Tommy's attention to let him out. That unfortunately didn't help either, so Dil stood up, grabbing a hold of the bars, and saw to trying to do a flip over the bars down on to the floor. He wasn't all that confident in doing this, since he still had yet to learn to walk and move without holding on to things for support, but his brother was in trouble, he had to do something. So he hirled himself down on to the floor, landing on his bottom. He then crawled over to Tommy's bed where the strong odor of vomit and diarrhea filled the air.

"Tommy had a poopy all right." Dil said, covering his nose as he climbed on to the bed, trying to miss where Tommy had thrown up.

"What's wrong Tommy?" Dil asked.

"Ow! It hurts!" Tommy cried in between his sobs, as Dil pounced on his aching stomach.

Unfortunately, not realizing what was hurting on Tommy, he only made it hurt worser, making him cry even louder. Tommy was mostly crying, not communicating with him like a big-big baby ordinarily would, and he smelled similarly to how Dil recalled he'd smell at points when he was younger. It then hit him what must be going on, just as the door to their bedroom opened, the lights were turned on, and Didi rushed over to Tommy's bed. Not wanting to get caught, Dil climbed down off of the bed and hid beneath it, listening to everything going on, as he heard his older brother calm down, and his mommy close by, trying to comfort him, clean things up, and make everything better.

"Awe, my poor baby. Let's get you all cleaned up, and maybe a bite to eat." Didi said, as Tommy calmed down.

Dil gasp. It suddenly hit him what was going on.

" _My big brother's not just sick, but I heard mommy call him a baby. He's turning into a baby-baby! He's got, baby-baby disease!_ " Dil thought to himself.

As Tommy lay on the changing table while his mommy cleaned up his diarrhea filled diapers and saw to getting him changed, he couldn't stop thinking about these strange dreams he was having as of late.

" _You must learn your lesson if you want to get well Tommy._ " He heard Bop say inside his head, which was aching something awful at this point.

But what was the lesson he had to learn? And is Tommy really turning back into a baby-baby like what Dil thought? Find out, come the next chapter of this story!

Author's Note: I hope I did okay here with doing a parody of that Curious George episode in Tommy's dream. Obviously, there'd be more dialogue in my parody, since Tommy and the other babies have a far bigger vocabulary than George does, as with George being a monkey, his vocabulary is much more limited, not being able to have as much of a conversation with the germs or anybody for that matter, like it was in Tommy's case here. Anyway, hope you all enjoyed this chapter, whether you're a fan of the Curious George TV series or not, and hopefully, more will be up soon! I have only two chapters left to this story here, and maybe, just maybe, I can get them up today, getting this story finished, once and for all! Time will tell of course.


	14. Baby-Baby Disease

Author's Note: I apologize for not getting this chapter released sooner. Felt very tired and had a bit of a headache yesterday. Also, something I forgot to mention at the end of the previous chapter, is the fact that if anybody was confused by the comment that Bop the germ made about why Reptar bars turned Tommy's tongue green upon entering the body, he claimed that he shed his green skin in the dream, but in actuality, there's green food coloring inside the Reptar bars that's responsible for that occurance. Learned this online when watching a video on Youtube about how to make Reptar bars. Yes, you can actually make Reptar bars at home. Haven't found a recipe for Reptar cereal yet, but if I should find one I'll let you all know. Also, some of the ideas in this chapter were thought up by Boris Yeltsin, at the tail end of the chapter we'll see the start of an idea given to me by Olaughlinhunter which will continue in the next and final chapter of the story, and, one portion of this chapter was inspired by The Loud House episode, One Flu Over The Loud House. With that out of the way, let's get started!

Chapter 14, Baby-Baby Disease

While Tommy was seeing to be diagnosed with the terrible stomach flu that was going around, and rain hit down hard over Yucaipa, California, Celeste Wehrenberg was busy at her job, taking every opportunity she got at breaks or in between assignments to look over the pamphlet she had received at the previous night's Lipschitz seminar, giving her ideas on how to improve her nephew's life. After all, she had been his guardian by this time for roughly three months now, and it wouldn't be too much longer before his first birthday rolled around. It was time, to make some changes, for the good of her nephew, even if he wasn't thrilled by the changes at first. Lipschitz had lots of tips in the pamphlet about things to consider when getting ready for bed, like no television right before bed, and when having trouble getting them to go to bed, make the task entertaining so they'll be more inclined to do the task. Let them pick out the bedtime story or the music to fall asleep to. However, while she appreciated all of the tips given, she wasn't going to follow Lipschitz right to the core. She did wwant to try to implement her own ways of doing things. She also looked over the list of recommended activities throughout the community, and she was pleased to find out that the music classes offered at the community center were for kids ages six months to kindergarten when she called the center to get more information about them. She decided to enroll Zack into the Saturday morning sessions, and she'd talk to the other parents about enrolling their kids into the program. She'd even be willing to take all of the kids herself if their parents couldn't go for whatever reason, as she knew where the Java Lava was concerned, Saturdays were often their most busiest days. In fact, they were so busy, that they discouraged from having any of the toddlers stay there for the day.

She was on the phone signing Zack up for music classes, when a call waiting beep came in. She clicked over and answered the call, which happened to be Peter, informing her that Tommy was sick, and that she'd have to come pick up Zack sooner. She informed her boss about this, who was less than amused, and told her she'd have to make up for the hours she missed, then got her things together, and went straight to the Pickles house to pick him up. She ran into Kira upon arriving, who offered to pick up the rest of the kids, since Dana and Laura couldn't leave work, neither could Betty, Howard, or Chas. Celeste picked up her nephew, and together, they went back to their apartment, where Zack played with puzzles and blocks, and they had Reptar macaroni and cheese for dinner, along with some apples and chips. Zack ate every last bite of his dinner, earning him a firecracker red, white, and blue popcickle for dessert, but what really took him by surprise, were the words that came out of his aunty's mouth after dinner that night.

"Okay Zachary, as soon as you're done with that popcickle, it will be time to get cleaned up and all ready for bed." Celeste said.

Zack gasp upon eating the last of his popcickle. It was too good to be true that this would be happening. Not exactly wanting to go to bed, he thrust down the popcickle stick into the bowl on the table, climbed out of his booster seat, and started running all over the kitchen, as while he was only eleven-months-old at this point, he learned to walk by nine-months-old, proving to be more advanced than most other babies. Hearing his tiny feat on the kitchen floor, Celeste started chasing after him.

"Come on Zack, this isn't funny." Celeste scolded, but Zack wasn't having any of it.

He started laughing, touching the different appliances in the kitchen. Celeste caught up to him, nearly out of breath, when he stopped at the refridgerator. Then, an idea came to her to make this routine into a game.

"Okay Zack, give the refridgerator a hug and tell it goodnight." Celeste said.

He was somewhat confused at first, but then realized what she meant after thinking about it. She wanted him to go to bed, so tell everything in the house goodnight. He did this with the refridgerator and then led Celeste over to the oven where he did the same thing there. Then, he ran over to the counter where the microwave was, pointing in that direction. While Celeste couldn't see what he was pointing to, she figured it was to the microwave, so she lifted him up towards the microwave, and sure enough, she was right, as he leaned in and gave the appliance a tiny hug.

"Goodnight microwave." Zack said to the appliance, but to Celeste's ears, it sounded like baby babble.

Then, he jumped out of her arms and ran for the living room, figuring that's where they were going to sleep, as he ran for the coffee table for the TV remote, as the TV was off. He pressed the power button, just as Celeste entered the room. She ran over to the coffee table where she found Zack, still holding the remote, taking it out of his hands and turning off the TV. Her blond headed nephew fell to the carpet and started to cry.

"I'm sorry Zachary but the TV has to go to sleep too." Celeste said.

Overhearing this, he stopped crying, and ran over to the TV, where he gave it a hug goodnight.

"That's my boy. Now, let's go get you ready for bed." Celeste said, as she scooped him up, and they headed down the hall towards his room.

She put him on the changing table where she got him into fresh diapers. Then, she put him down on the floor of his room, where she opened the bottom drawer of his dresser, and smiled at him.

"Okay Zack, I'm gonna go get your hot milk ready. You pick out some pajamas to wear and the book you want me to read tonight, while I go get it ready." Celeste said, kissing the top of his forehead.

While he might have been a bit too young to do some things independently, she wanted him to have some say in this ritchual, so letting him pick out some of the things was a way to make it more fun for him, while he got use to the changes. Celeste closed Zack's bedroom door behind her, which thankfully, had one of those child protection things on the doorknob, so he couldn't easily escape, then went back into the kitchen to make his hot milk. Meanwhile, Zack noticed he was stuck in his room. However, he wasn't going to complain. He did as he was asked, by picking out a pair of pajamas, which he chose his dark purple footsy pajamas with a picture of Reptar on the front, and over on the bookshelf, he picked out a Super Why book called Goodnight from the Super Readers. It was in print and Braille so his aunty could read it to him. Shortly after picking out his book, Celeste returned with his hot milk. She found Zack trying to put his pajamas on, which he was having some trouble doing, as he attempted to put his feet through the arm wholes, so decided to set the bottle down on the nightstand next to the bed, and help.

"Here, let me help." Celeste said, picking up her nephew off of the floor and helping him to put on the pajamas correctly.

Once he had on his pajamas, she handed him his bottle of milk, and together, they sat down in the rocking chair and she read him the book. While she read, he finished his bottle, and let out a huge yawn, about ready to fall asleep. Then, she carried him over to his Reptar racecar bed, where she lay him down, tucked him in beneath his blanket, and kissed him goodnight.

"Goodnight Zachary, pleasant dreams." Celeste said, as she walked out of the room, turned out the lights, and closed the door behind her.

Zack yawned and drifted off to sleep in his Reptar bed for the first time since he moved in with his aunty, while Celeste went off to her room and got herself ready for bed. Both of them slept in their beds all night, and the next morning, they both awoke, feeling well-rested, and ready to start the day. Zack sat up in bed and looked out his bedroom window, where the sun was coming up in the sky, yawned, stretched and smiled.

" _You know, sleeping in my Reptar bed felt good. Maybe going to bed at night isn't so bad after all. I feel really good and can't wait to see what the day has to bring me._ " Zack thought to himself, as he stood up on the floor and started singing, looking for something to play with.

Then, he picked up a toy train off of the floor, ran over to his bedroom door and started banging on it. Celeste heard the noise across the hall, came in, and saw he was awake, and started getting him ready for the day.

"Morning Zack, sleep well?" Celeste asked her nephew.

Zack let out a giggle and touched her face.

"Well that's good. Now, let's get our day started. All of your friends will be coming over to play, and we might go get you all signed up for a really fun, musical activity we can do together." Celeste said, as they got their day started.

Zack figured he'd tell all of his friends when they came over about the joys of going to bed at night, but little did he know the plans for the day were going to change. The phone rang while they were eating breakfast. Celeste answered the phone to find out it was work calling, asking her to come in for a few hours, after having to leave early the previous day. She quickly called the other kid's parents, telling them they wouldn't be able to come over, and naturally, everybody went off to the next destination they'd pick, Stu and Didi Pickles, forgetting all about the fact that they'd only be exposing their kids even more so to the stomach flu that Tommy was very sick with.

In fact, while Celeste saw to the first night of a bedtime routine for her nephew Zack, things played out very differently at Tommy and Dil's house. After Didi had changed Tommy into a fresh diaper and one of his oversized blue Reptar nightshirts, she placed him down on the floor of his bedroom.

"Mommy's gonna go get dinner ready and see if we can get you to eat something that will make that tummy of yours feel all better." Didi said, blowing Tommy a kiss from the door and heading downstairs.

Once she was gone, Dil crawled out from beneath Tommy's bed, and sat on the floor across from him. He noticed how still and quiet Tommy was.

" _I wonder if it's true, if he really is turning into a baby-baby._ " Dil thought to himself, as he stared up at his big brother.

He looked really sad and bored, so struck up an idea.

"Come on Tommy, let's play trains." Dil suggested, crawling over to the box of tracks and the toy roundhouse, and getting things ready.

Tommy on-the-other-hand, while he didn't feel wonderful, he decided to stand up and help Dil get everything ready, but found he was too dizzy when trying to walk over there. At a point, Dil looked over in Tommy's direction, just as he collapsed to the floor and started to crawl over. By this time, he had all of the track on the floor in a pile, and the roundhouse, tunnels, extension bridge and drawbridges right where he wanted them, and he started building some track.

Not feeling much up to really playing, Tommy sat on the floor and watched his brother building the tracks together. He was surprised at how nicely he was treating the toy. He wasn't throwing anything at his head, or anything like that. While Dil was putting together a train for himself to run on the tracks, and making one for his brother, he couldn't help but think about that evil Mr. Mucklehoney he met the previous night at the restaurant, and how he acted so much like he use to act with their toys. Wanting to turn over a new leaf and be a better, more grown up big baby, he played with the trains nicely. Besides, if his brother was turning into a baby-baby, one of them needed to act like a big baby, might as well be him, as he was not too far off from reaching his first birthday very soon. Tommy on-the-other-hand, felt another headache coming on, as he quietly watched his brother, as he handed him a train to run on the tracks.

"Here's your train Tommy." Dil said, upon handing it to him.

To Tommy's surprise, Dil didn't grab it back from him.

" _Hmmm, is Dilly being nice to me cuz he knows I don't feel well?_ " Tommy thought to himself, as the two-year-old started to run his train slowly on the track towards the little train station, while Dil was taking his train through the tunnels.

At a point while they were playing trains very silently, Dil spoke up.

"Isn't this fun Tommy?" Dil asked.

"Uh huh." Tommy replied, in a tiny weak voice.

" _One-word answers. Sounds just like how I use to talk. He's definitely gots baby-baby disease_." Dil thought to himself, observing his older brother's unusually quiet behavior.

A little while later, their daddy came to get them for dinner. He carried them both downstairs, where Dil was placed in his highchair with a plate of carrots, spinach, mash potatoes and chicken in front of him, while Tommy scrambled out of his daddy's hands and ran over to the refridgerator to the best of his ability, considering he still felt dizzy. His mouth was really bothering him, and he recalled Peter putting up some frozen blueberries into the freezer that Zack hadn't finished at lunch one day, and was wondering if they were still in there. While neither of his parents were looking, he opened up the freezer, where sure enough sat the blue and white container with the blueberries inside. He pulled it out and had a few. While they felt good on his teeth, he's not sure if his tummy liked them, as it girgled and started to hurt something awful.

" _I guess Bop's turning my blueberries into rocks._ " Tommy thought, as Didi ran up to him and found the empty container that once had blueberries in it in his hand.

"Well, I guess somebody was hungry. Let's try some of mommy's home made chicken noodle soup." Didi said with a smile, picking up her oldest son and placing him into his booster seat.

In front of Tommy was a bowl of the chicken noodle soup and a sippy cup full of red juice. However, after eating the blueberries and feeling worse, he wasn't so sure about eating the soup. He almost climbed down out of the booster seat, when Didi came over to him and lifted the spoon out of the bowl.

"Come on Tommy, it's yummy yummy!" Didi said, lifting the spoon of soup towards his mouth, while Stu saw to feeding Dil his food.

Not feeling much up to fighting it, Tommy reluctantly went along with eating the soup, as his mommy fed it to him, though Dil, who was watching from his highchair as Stu fed him the last of his supper, couldn't help but notice this.

" _Tommy use to feed himself, and now, mommy's feeding him. Looks like the baby-baby disease is getting worser._ " Dil thought to himself, as he drank a bottle of juice after dinner.

Stu and Didi were about to get both boys some dessert, when Tommy had a double whammy at the table. He threw up all over his place at the table not long after Didi finished feeding him the soup, and had diarrhea in his diapers. Upset by this, he started to cry.

"What's wrong Tommy?" Dil asked.

"Bad poopy Dilly!" Tommy cried between his sobs.

"Come on Stu let's get Tommy and the kitchen cleaned up." Didi said.

"Okay Deed." Stu said, as they wet some rags and saw to cleaning up the mess.

Shortly after dinner, Didi took Tommy's temperature and saw his fever was still kind of high, so saw to getting a cold bath ready for him. Dil, who was now ready for bed minus a bath, was watching all of this going on from the bathroom door, as Didi placed Tommy into the cold bath water. Tommy didn't like it and started to cry. Not realizing the type of bath he was placed into, this shocked Dil tremendously, as he recalled not liking baths very much when he was younger, but couldn't ever recall a time Tommy didn't like taking baths. There was a time when Tommy was afraid of going down the drain, but this was something Dil didn't know about because it happened way before he was born.

" _Oh no! Now Tommy don't like taking baths! Another symptom of the baby-baby disease!_ " Dil thought to himself, as he watched his older brother take his bath on top of being fussy and difficult.

"Come on Tommy, now calm down." Didi said.

But Tommy wasn't having any of it. He felt miserable, and all he wanted to do was lie down and go to sleep. Eventually, after struggling to getting him to stay still, Didi got him washed off, put into a fresh diaper and some clean pajamas, and Stu read the boys their bedtime story, one of Tommy's Reptar books about an adventure where Reptar goes to the moon to defeat the moon monsters, while Dil had his bottle of milk, and Tommy had a bottle of ginger ale.

While Dil was awake for the entire book, Tommy fell asleep halfway through, and the rest of the night consisted of Tommy having two diarrhea accidents, awakening his parents to changing him, not to mention, Dil with his crying for them, and then, trying to get him to go back to sleep. By the following morning, everyone felt more exhausted than rested, as they sleepily saw to fixing breakfast. To Tommy's surprise, while his brother had oatmeal, he was fed another bowl of the chicken soup.

" _Huh? This isn't breakfast. Where's my Reptar cereal?_ " Tommy thought to himself, as he stared at the bowl of soup before him in confusion.

Then, he got an idea, as even if they did turn to rocks in his tummy upon eating them, he didn't think soup was for breakfast. Seeing the box of Reptar cereal on a shelf in the pantry, he pointed to it. Didi came over and saw where he was pointing to, and let out a frown.

"I'm sorry sweetie, but you're sick. You can have Reptar cereal when you're feeling better." Didi said.

This sent Tommy off the deep end, as the two-year-old had a fit, picking up his bowl of soup and dumping it on top of his head.

"Tommy no!" Didi said, exasperated, as she got her now crying son out of his booster seat at the table and took him upstairs to give him another bath.

Stu finished feeding Dil his oatmeal, and got him dressed for the day and placed in the playpen downstairs, just as the doorbell rang.

"Now who could that be?" Stu asked himself, as he went to answer the door to find Celeste there with Zack, Laura with Jesse, Drew with Angelica, Kira with Chuckie and Kimi, and Howard with Phil and Lil.

"Oh, we weren't expecting to see you all here." Stu said.

"Well I'm sorry, but I was suppose to watch the kids today, until I got called into work unexpectedly." Celeste said.

"Yeah, same here. I only have to work part of the day though, so I'll be back at around lunch time to pick up Angelica. Now be good princess." Drew said to his daughter, giving her a kiss.

"I will daddy." Angelica replied, though the toddlers knew differently.

"Well, Tommy is still sick, but I suppose we can watch the kids today as long as we keep them separated. Plus, I'm sure Dil wouldn't mind somebody to play with." Stu said.

"We'll all be back at the end of the day to pick them up." Kira said.

Everybody dropped off their kids, told them goodbye, and once the parents and guardians were gone, Stu went downstairs to work on one of his inventions, as Angelica sat down on the couch to watch some TV, and the rest of the toddlers minus Tommy were over at the opposite end of the living room in the playpen with Dil, who crawled over to them, looking worried.

"You guys, I've gots some news about Tommy. Member how yesterday, he gotted sick at the park and we all had to come home?" Dil asked.

"Uh huh?" Kimi replied.

"Well, my big brother's gots baby-baby disease." Dil said.

All of the toddlers gasp upon hearing this.

"What's that?" Jesse asked.

"It's where you start acting like a baby-baby. You sleep a lot, cry lots, have lots of poopies in your diapies, throw up, crawl instead of walk, speak no more than one word when you talk, and worstest of all, you don't like taking baths and you can't feed yourself no mores, even if you're technically a big-big baby. Tommy's gots all of the symptoms." Dil explained.

Angelica, who overheard this entire conversation from her side of the living room, when a commercial came on TV, decided to use this opportunity to go over and torture the babies about this situation.

"Do you think Tommy will get better?" Chuckie asked.

Before one of the other toddlers could answer, Angelica skipped up to the playpen and made one of her false predictions.

"You babies are so dumb. Everybody knows that baby-baby disease is permanent. Tommy's gonna be a baby-baby forever." Angelica said.

Zack glaired at her angrily, rolling his eyes and sticking his tongue out at her.

"I doubt if it's true Angelica, you're making that up." Jesse said.

"Fine, don't believe me, but don't come crying to me when Tommy never grows up again and is throwing raddles at your head and pulling on your hair." Angelica said, just as her show came back on TV, making her leave to go catch the rest of it.

Just then, they overheard Tommy crying over the baby monitor in the kitchen, and then, Didi coming into the room to check on him.

"It's okay Tommy, mommy's here." They heard Didi say over the monitor, as they listened intently to her taking care of him.

From what they could hear, she changed his diapers, then placed him back down in bed.

"Now you rest here sweetie, and mommy will come get you later for lunch." Didi said, upon leaving the room.

Didi left Tommy's room and went off to her own room to get some things organized and change the sheets on her bed, while downstairs, Zack turned to the other toddlers.

"Come on you guys, let's go find out for ourselves what's really going on with this so called, baby-baby disease." Zack said to the other toddlers.

"Yeah! And if we go upstairs, maybe we can play with Tommy's trains!" Phil commented.

"I don't know you guys, what if Tommy tries to bite me again." Chuckie said worriedly.

"Come on Chuckie, Tommy's your bestest friend, I keep telling you he didn't mean it. Don't you wanna make up with him?" Zack asked.

Chuckie sighed.

"Oh all right I'll go." Chuckie muttered, just as Dil looked through a pile of toys towards the back of the playpen until he found what he was looking for.

"Aha! Our way out of here." Dil said, holding up a spare plastic screwdriver he found beneath the pile of toys.

Zack took it from him and unlatched the playpen, and before they all knew it, they were heading for Tommy and Dil's room.

"So are we gonna play with Tommy's trains or what?" Phil asked while crawling up the stairs.

"Don't you mean my trains?" Zack asked.

"What do you mean, your trains?" Lil asked, confused.

"Yeah, I thought they were Tommy's." Phil added.

"Nope, that Brio stuff with the gobs of track, roundhouse, drawbridges, extension bridge, the two tunnels, one of them looking like a mountain that you take apart with the dynamite, and the many trains that go with it are all mine. My aunty tells me that my daddy use to have them when he was little, and now, they're mine to play with." Zack explained.

"Then why are they at Tommy's house?" Kimi asked, upon reaching the top of the stairs, the other babies not too far behind her.

"Because with my aunty working so much, she figured with me having them over here to play with, I'd get to play with them more, and share them with you guys." Zack replied, as they headed in the direction of Tommy's room.

"Oh." All of the toddlers replied in unison, as they entered the bedroom.

Peering over at the bed, they saw that Tommy was asleep, and from the looks of it, he was dressed in a pair of blue and white striped pajamas, a long sleeve pajama shirt on top, and a pair of long pants when Lil pulled back the blankets, only they weren't footsy pajamas as Tommy's bare feet were sticking out the bottom of the pajama pants. Upon noticing this display, Lil turned to the other toddlers.

"He don't look like a baby-baby." Lil whispered to the others.

"Let's fix that, shall we?" Jesse said loudly, not keeping his voice down.

This awoke Tommy with a start, as he had another diarrhea incident in his diapers, causing him to start crying. Then, he sat up, and before he had a chance to try to say anything else, he threw up everywhere.

"Eeewww!" All of the babies cried, except for Phil.

"I guess we'd better clean this up." Zack said.

"Nuh uh, I'll just watch." Chuckie said, backing away nervously, as he placed himself against the foot of Dil's crib, watching from the sidelines, as Kimi, Zack, Phil, Lil, Jesse, and Dil all saw to taking care of Tommy.

Kimi, Phil and Lil all went over to the changing table, and with some help of standing on top of the twins who were stacked on top of one another, Kimi was able to reach the baby powder and a fresh diaper. She sadly, couldn't reach the baby wipes, because they were too far back on the changing table against the wall. They then went back over to the bed, where Phil pulled out some napkins from his diapers, spit on them and started cleaning up the vomit all over Tommy's bed, while Lil and Kimi saw to changing Tommy's diapers.

"Now hold still baby Tommy." Lil said, as Jesse applied the powder, only he applied a bit too much, making a mess, and Lil and Kimi got Tommy into a fresh diaper.

Tommy was a bit confused by what was going on, but was too out of it to do much, as he felt the fatigue overtake him again. Once he was changed and stripped of his clothes, as while Phil got the bed cleaned up, he had a bit more trouble with his pajamas, Zack came over to the bed with a Reptar throw blanket he found in one of the bottom dresser drawers, and wrapped Tommy in it.

"Let's give him a bottle." Zack suggested.

"Great idea Zachary!" Kimi commented, as she found a bottle that was only half drunk on Tommy's nightstand, and saw to feeding it to him.

"Now drink up baby-baby Tommy." Kimi said, as he started to drink the contents, only to spit it out because he wasn't up for another tummy ache.

He started to cry, as he threw the bottle at his brother's head.

"Now what are we gonna do?" Lil asked the others.

"I know." Dil said, crawling over to his crib where Chuckie was standing.

"Help me Chubby help me!" Dil cried.

"Uh, Dil, it's Chuckie, and I don't wanna help." Chuckie snapped, crossing his arms and turning away.

"Just help me get inside my crib, I need a binky for Tommy." Dil said, handing Chuckie the screwdriver they used to get out of the playpen.

He reached up, unlatched the crib, and helped Dil climb in, where he found one of his pacifiers, then climbed back down to the floor, where he crawled over to Tommy's bed, climbed up, and stuck the pacifier into his mouth.

Tommy stopped crying, and while he didn't care much for binkies, he was too tired to protest, not to mention, it felt good to chew on the nipple, as he closed his eyes and drifted off to sleep.

Upon awakening though, he found his stomach wasn't hurting anymore, and his bedroom was completely deserted. He stood up and noticed he didn't feel dizzy anymore either.

" _Is this a dream_?" Tommy thought to himself, as he looked around the room, trying to figure out what was going on.

Before he could get any answers, he heard some loud crying in the distance. He recognized one of the voices to be Dil, so headed in the direction of the noise. It was coming from downstairs in the living room. Curious, he headed downstairs, where Zack stopped him upon reaching the bottom of the stairs. He walked up to Tommy and placed a hand on his forehead.

"Well, he feels cool to me." Zack said.

"What's going on?" Tommy asked.

"Didn't you know? Several of us have caught what's commonly knowed by the other babies on the playground as the tummy bug." Zack replied.

"Oh no!" Tommy cried.

"Yep. Firstest, Dil got it. He then threw up on Angelica, who gotted it, and then, she threw up on her Cynthia doll, which Lil touched, getting the disease, and then, throwing up on her and Phil's Reptar doll, he touched it and gotted sick too." Kimi explained.

"So why is everybody crying?" Tommy asked.

Before anybody could stop him, he snuck past the group and peered into the living room over at the playpen, where Dil lay on the floor, now in his baby-baby form in the yellow and red trimmed footsy pajamas he use to wear back in the day, with Phil and Lil lying next to him, also kicking and crying. They looked no different than they did in their flashback in the Mother's Day episode, as they lay on the floor, not much bigger than Dil, with bare feet wearing smaller versions of their usual attire they wore at fifteen-months-old toddlers, continuing to cry. Then, outside the playpen, Tommy noticed something else that looked rather odd. Angelica, now the size of a baby-baby lay on the floor, with shorter blond hair pulled back into two pigtails, wearing the same dark blue t-shirt, pink jumper and little shoes she wore in her flashback in No More Cookies, as she lay there crying, with only one tooth coming out of the top of her mouth. Next to her on the floor though were Cynthia and a Reptar doll, but to Tommy's surprise, they didn't look like their adult forms. Reptar looked like a tiny baby green dinosaur, like he had just hatched from an egg, and Cynthia was much smaller, with only one strand of blond hair sticking out, and she was wearing a diaper and an orange and red striped shirt. Noticing all of this, Tommy turned back to where Zack, Kimi, Chuckie, Jesse, and Susie were standing.

"You guys, they don't gots the tummy bug, they've gots baby-baby disease!" Tommy said.

"But how did they get it so fast?" Kimi asked.

"I believe it's the throw up that passes on the disease." Zack said.

"Well we gots to get out of here before we all turn into baby-babies and catch the disease. Come on everybody, to the backyard." Tommy said, walking through the living room, with Susie, Zack, Jesse, Kimi, and Chuckie following close behind.

Unfortunately, Jesse stepped on a doggy chew toy in the pathway, sending him flying across the room, where he landed on the floor of the playpen in front of baby-baby Phil and Lil. Curious about his black hair, they started pulling on it and sticking it in their mouths and trying to slerp it up like spaghetti, when they started to feel sick again. Both of them threw up on Jesse's head, and Jesse instantly started turning into a baby-baby. His hair grew shorter, making him have no more than what Phil and Lil had on their heads, and his outfit transformed into nothing more than a turquoise plain blue t-shirt and a diaper, and no shoes, as he lay, face down on the carpet, having trouble breathing.

"Come on! We gotta go help him!" Kimi cried, as she ran over towards the playpen to help baby-baby Jesse turn over on his back, while Tommy, Chuckie, Zack and Susie all made a break for the kitchen, in hoping to escape.

For a brief moment, they turned to stare at Chuckie, who looked kind of pale.

"Uh, I think Chuckie might have already caught it Tommy." Susie commented.

"You guys, I tend to look like this all of the time. Besides, all of this throwing up is enough to make me feel sick." Chuckie said, as his face turned a pale green and he threw up all over the kitchen floor.

Meanwhile, Jesse threw up on Kimi in the living room, as she started to digress into a baby-baby. All of the sudden, she shrank down in size, now only wearing one pigtail in her hair, wearing nothing but a diaper and a yellow t-shirt with a picture of a blue kitty cat on the front. She lay on the floor helpless, as she and Jesse kept kicking their feet hitting one another, crying as the kicking one another hurt. Back in the kitchen, Zack stepped in the puddle of vomit that Chuckie had made on the floor, becoming infected with the disease, as he sank down to the floor, losing all of his blond hair and shrinking in size.

"You guys, help! I'm… I'm..." Zack started to say, but shortly afterwards, nothing else came out except babbles, as he lost the ability to speak, only being able to cry to get attention.

Susie went over to a drawer in the kitchen where she pulled out some pacifiers, and ran back into the living room, where she saw to putting them into each of the babies mouths, until she tried to put one into Angelica's mouth, when she spit it out, throwing up all over Susie, who plopped down to the floor and turned into a baby-baby.

"Yucky!" Susie cried, now appearing to have one tiny brade in her hair, and she was now the size of the other babies in the room, dressed in nothing more than a diaper and a yellow t-shirt with a picture of a large, dark purple flower on the front.

By this time, Tommy got the back door open, and was about to step outside, when he saw that somehow, Spike, Spiffi, and his mommy and daddy had all been infested. On the patio lay Spike and Spiffi, who looked to be no bigger than the size of newborn puppies, and lying out in the grass, lay Stu and Didi, who were also the size of baby-babies. Both of them had no hair, with Stu wearing a lime green t-shirt and a diaper, while Didi wore a bright pink dress and a diaper under neath. However, while most of the babies inside spent much of their time crying, Stu and Didi were passed out asleep in the grass.

"Oh no Chuckie, looks like Spike and Spiffi and my mommy and daddy gotted Baby-baby disease too!" Tommy cried.

"This is really starting to scare me!" Chuckie said.

"Awe come on Chuckie, how bad could it be?" Tommy asked, trying to reassure his friend that maybe getting baby-baby disease wouldn't be such abad thing.

Unknown to him, Spike and Spiffi spit up on the back of Tommy's legs.

"Hey! What was…" But before Tommy could finish asking his question, the aroma of doggy vomit filled the air, as Tommy felt himself collapse to the ground and digress.

Before he knew it, his dark purple hair was all gone, and he was bald, and he was not much bigger than Spike and Spiffi, as he now lay in nothing but a diaper, in the doorway from the kitchen out to the backyard.

"Chubby! Chubby!" Tommy cried, not able to say anything else.

"I'll help you Tommy." Chuckie called, but no sooner had he picked up baby-baby Tommy, when he spit up all over Chuckie.

Just then, he dropped his best friend to the kitchen floor, as he passed out, growing smaller, most of his red hair falling out, as only a few strands remained on top of his head, as he was changed into nothing more than a diaper and a light blue plain t-shirt with red trim, and his glasses disappeared. Poor Tommy lay on the floor, feeling helpless, as he tried to move, but couldn't because of his small size. He started crying, as he cried himself to sleep. The next thing he knew, he awoke in bed, back to his big-big-baby self, still feeling sick and miserable. Upon awakening, he noticed how he was wearing nothing more than a diaper wrapped in a Reptar throw blanket, still with a pacifier in his mouth. Noticing this, he removed the pacifier to find he had chewed a whole in the nipple, as he glanced over and saw all of his friends and brother playing nicely with the trains on the floor.

"Here Chuckie, have a train." Dil said.

"Thanks Dil." Chuckie replied, rolling it along the track.

"Do you all notice something different about Dil?" Phil asked.

"Yeah! He isn't grabbing our trains!" Lil commented.

"I wonder if Dil's sick too?" Jesse asked.

"Nah, I just, decided that with it being not too long before I'm officially a big-baby, I'd better start acting like one. Specially after meeting Mr. Mucklehoney of the fifth dimention." Dil explained.

"Huh?" All of the toddlers on the floor asked in unison.

"Yeah, me and Tommy went to this restaurant a couple of yesterday nights ago with Peter and my daddy, and Peter brought to life this mean man that looked like the man they were talking to. He acted just like a baby-baby, throwing furniture and screaming, and I realized I don't wanna be like that when I'm all growed up. So decided maybe I'd better learn to play nice." Dil explained.

"Wow! That's very big of you." Zack said.

"Yeah, speaking of which, we'd better go check on Tommy." Dil said.

At that point, Tommy turned towards his friends and spoke up.

"You guys, I'm not turning into a baby-baby. I'm just, really sick with a tummy bug that's all." Tommy said, rubbing his aching stomach with one hand, and his head with the other, as he started to shiver slightly upon removing the blanket.

"You're not?" Chuckie asked.

"No Chuckie." Tommy replied.

He then stared in shock, as Chuckie backed away nervously from the train tracks. Tommy climbed down from the bed and crawled over to where Chuckie was sitting, when he only backed up even further, now disappearing inside the closet.

"Chuckie, it's okay, you can come closer." Tommy said, sitting in the open door into the closet.

"I'd better not." Chuckie replied from inside the closet.

"How come?" Tommy asked.

"Cuz, I might say the wrong thing and make you bite me again." Chuckie said, holding up his arm and showing Tommy where he had bitten him a couple of days prior.

"Chuckie, I'd never mean to bite you, you're my bestest friend." Tommy said.

"Well then, if we're bestest friends, why did you bite me?" Chuckie asked.

"I was mad when daddy tooked my Reptar wagon away, and my teeth were hurting and I wanted to bite on something. I never meant to hurt you." Tommy said.

"You mean it?" Chuckie asked.

Without saying a word, Tommy crawled into the closet and gave Chuckie a hug. The two toddlers relaxed and smiled, though Tommy still didn't feel all that wonderful. Once the two best friends had made up, they crawled out of the closet, where all of the other toddlers, Zack especially, applauded for them.

"Wanna play trains with us Tommy?" Phil asked.

Tommy shook his head no.

"I've had enough trains too." Zack said, starting to take the track apart.

All of the other toddlers who had been quietly playing with them while Tommy slept agreed, as they helped pick up the trains and put everything up in the box.

"You know guyhs, while it's been fun having them here to play with, I do sort of miss having them at home." Zack said.

"Huh?" Tommy asked, upon helping Chuckie to put the roundhouse on top of the box.

"Those trains are Zack's. His aunty let him keep them here to play with." Kimi explained.

"Oh." Tommy replied, as everybody sat in a circle on the carpet.

"So what are we gonna do now?" Chuckie asked.

"I don't know." Tommy replied.

"We could go outside and play Okey-dokey Jones." Jesse suggested, going over to a pile of toys in the corner of the room and picking up the fedora and whip that Tommy had received as a present from Olaughlinhunter for his birthday.

He walked over to Tommy and handed it to him, to which he shook his head no and thrust them down on the floor.

"We don't gots to be okey-Dokey Jones, we could just, play explorers." Zack suggested.

"No! I don't wanna play! I wanna go watch some Reptar." Tommy said, crawling towards the door of the bedroom.

Unfortunately, when the gang entered the room earlier, they failed to notice that the last person into the room closed the door behind them. This wouldn't have been a bad thing, except that on the inside of the doorknob was one of those things with the wholes in it to keep toddlers from escaping.

"Uh oh." Phil commented, noticing the trap they were in.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to close the door behind me." Kimi said.

"Maybe if we all pull on the handle together, we can get it open." Zack suggested.

Agreeing to the plan, everybody went up to the door and tried to get it open, but sadly, not even the strength of two or more toddlers could get it open, and poor Tommy, being too weak from his illness, wasn't much help. Feeling defeated, he slumped to the carpet in front of the door and started crying.

"Now what?" Lil asked.

"I'm cold." Tommy cried.

"I'll help you Tommy." Chuckie said, running over to his dresser where he found an oversized dark purple nightshirt with Robosnails on it. He pulled it out of the drawer and with Kimi's help, they got Tommy dressed.

"So what are we gonna do now?" Dil asked.

"We could play Reptar." Phil said, going over to the pile of toys in the corner of the room and picking up a Reptar doll.

"No!" Tommy cried, letting out a huge yawn, as he crawled over to his bed and climbed into bed.

"What do you wanna do then?" Chuckie asked.

"Go back to bed. I'm not feeling well. Goodnight Chuckie." Tommy said, as he closed his eyes, snuggled up with his Reptar doll, and drifted off to sleep.

It was pretty obvious that Tommy didn't feel well, when he didn't feel up to doing any of the activities he usually enjoyed doing, as this even surprised Chuckie, as it wasn't like Tommy to prefer taking a nap over going on an adventure and having fun. On top of that though, all of the other toddlers, noticing how tired they were after trying to take care of Tommy and play quietly while he slept during his first nap of the day, they, too, collapsed to the carpet and passed out, while Chuckie climbed into bed next to Tommy, removed his glasses and placed them on the nightstand next to the bed, grabbed the blanket, and pulled it over him and Tommy both, thankful they were best friends again, and that Zack was right, Tommy never really meant to hurt him.

"Have a good nap Tommy." Chuckie said, as he closed his eyes and took a nap next to his best friend.

Meanwhile, Tommy had another dream where he was once again, back inside his body, facing Bop.

"Well well well, look who's back." Bop said.

"Why am I still sick? I made up with Chuckie, but I still don't feel well." Tommy said.

"Ah, making up with your best friend is a good start, but that's not the lesson you need to learn if you wish to get well." Bop said.

Tommy stared at him with a frown.

"Well, what is it?" Tommy asked.

"You'll know." Bop said.

Tommy was a bit confused, but he wasn't up for arguing with the germ who made him sick. It was obvious that the germ knew what he was talking about, and that Tommy would have to oversee this bug, even if it was the hard way.

Back in the real world, Didi eventually came in to check on Tommy, when she opened the door to see all of the kids had fallen asleep in Tommy's room. She also noticed that it wasn't just Tommy and Dil there, but the entire gang. Curious, as she wasn't the one to let them all in, she went downstairs to find Angelica watching TV.

Overhearing footsteps, she looked up from watching TV to see her aunt Didi before her.

"Oh, hi Aunt Didi. My daddy dropped me off here to play, along with those babies too." Angelica said.

"Thanks for playing nicely while Tommy slept." Didi said, heading into the kitchen where Stu was fixing himself some lunch.

"Stu, did everybody drop their kids off here today?" Didi asked.

Stu turned around from where he was making his sandwich to face his wife.

"Uh, yeah. Drew said he'd be here around lunchtime to pick up Angelica, and the rest of them would be here at the end of the day." Stu replied.

"Well I only hope we didn't just pass on the stomach flu to everybody's kids. They all somehow, snuck upstairs where Tommy was sleeping." Didi replied.

"What?" Stu cried in a panic.

"Now Stu, it was bound to happen. I'm sure Tommy caught it from my father, who was sick when we went there the other day while you got that mess you made with your latest less than successful invention cleaned up." Didi said, clearing her throat.

The rest of that day was uneventful, as eventually, everybody awoke from their nap, ate lunch, and while Tommy went down for another nap that afternoon, the other kids played downstairs, thankful that not only had Angelica eventually left with her daddy, but that she was also wrong, Tommy wasn't going to turn into a baby-baby forever after all. Unfortunately, later that night, all of the kids fell ill with the stomach disease, and Tommy and Dil didn't see them for a couple of days, as they were stuck at home, trying to fight off the terrible bug.

Eventually, Tommy got to where he wasn't throwing up anymore, only having a little bit of diarrhea and feeling very sleepy. But despite feeling slightly better, he still didn't feel completely back to himself.

" _What lesson did I need to learn?_ " Tommy asked himself, as he sat on the couch, watching the Dummi Bears one morning, when the doorbell rang.

Didi went to answer it to find that Peter had come for a visit.

"I just thought I'd stop by and see how Tommy was doing." Peter said.

"Oh, that's very thoughtful of you." Didi said, letting him into the house.

"Hey Tommy, how are you feeling?" Peter asked, taking a seat next to him on the couch.

"I'm better, but I've still gots the poopies and feeling quite sleepy." Tommy said.

"Well at least you're not throwing up anymore." Peter said.

"Yeah." Tommy said.

"And at least my big brother isn't turning into a baby-baby." Dil said, crawling over to the couch.

Peter laughed, only he then saw that Dil looked serious. Seing Peter however, made Tommy think of something that came up at dinner the other night before he passed out at the restaurant. He recalled how Peter, his daddy, and that Mr. Mucklehoney guy were talking about something called the Age Decreaser, and talking about Dr. Lipschitz, showing pictures of him as a baby and then as an adult. Was it true? Was the Lipschitz not really a baby after all? He had to ask Peter about this, but seems he didn't get a chance right away, as Stu and Didi decided to have him watch the kids on short notice, while they went and ran some arrons, and Peter fed himself, Tommy, and Dil some lunch. Then, after lunch, he fixed them their bottles of hot milk and put on Reptar versus the Aliens on DVD for them to watch while they drank their bottles and saw to falling asleep.

However, while Dil fell asleep upon finishing his milk, passing out on a pillow and a blanket on the living room floor in front of the TV, Tommy was lying on the couch with his head on a pillow tucked beneath a blanket, lying on his side as he stared intently at the TV, as this was one of his favorite Reptar movies. Peter came into the living room and took their empty bottles away from them, when he noticed that Tommy hadn't fallen asleep. Realizing this, he picked up the remote off of the coffee table and switched off the TV.

"What happened to Reptar?" Tommy asked.

"He's taking a nap." Peter replied.

"No! He's spose to be defeating the aliums and saving the world. Please, turn it back on." Tommy begged.

"Are you going to take your nap?" Peter asked.

"Uh, maybe, when it's over." Tommy replied.

"No Tommy, as your babysitter and king of the Confederacy, you need to take your nap now. I just got off the phone with Lucy and Susie and they're planning to come by later and see how you're doing. And I think your parents might be having all of your friends and cousin and her family over for dinner tonight. You may be almost over this bug, but you need your rest." Peter said.

But Tommy was tired of sleeping. He wanted to watch Reptar. However, it then hit him that if Peter wasn't going to let him watch the movie, maybe he could get his answer to the other question that was burning in his head. He sat up on the couch and faced Peter, a look of curiosity spread across his face.

"Peter, I've gots a question. I heardid you and daddy talking to that Mucklehoney guy a few yesterday nights ago about the Lipschitz. Is it true that the Lipschitz is a growed up, not a baby?" Tommy asked.

"Yes it is Tommy. Doctor Lipschitz is an adult, just like your mom and dad." Peter replied.

"But at the dinner you were talking about some machine that made him a baby, and showing pictures of him as a baby, like he was back when we went to Susie's birpday party." Tommy replied.

"Yes Tommy, you're right." Peter said.

"Well can you show me the machine that made the Lipschitz a baby?" Tommy asked.

"Yes, after your nap." Peter replied.

"No! I wanna go see it right now!" Tommy protested, standing up from the couch, grabbing a hold of Peter's hand, where he was sitting towards the opposite end of the couch.

However, Peter wouldn't budge.

"After your nap." Peter scolded.

The two-year-old let out a reluctant sigh, as he climbed back on to the couch, closed his eyes, and drifted off to sleep. He didn't want to take a nap, he would have much preferred either finishing his Reptar movie or going to see that machine, but looks like he didn't have a choice in the matter, so he reluctantly dozed off, hoping his questions would be answered upon awakening.

And this, ends chapter 14. So, what will happen come the next and final chapter of this story? Will Peter indeed, show Tommy the machine that turned Dr. Lipschitz back into a baby? And will Tommy finally learn his lesson, making Bop disappear from his body, once and for all? And what is that lesson exactly? Find out, come the last and final chapter of this story, which I hope to get released sometime later on today, so please, do stay tuned!

Author's Note: Sorry if this chapter was a bit long, but there was a lot covered in it. Also, a reference to Olaughlinhunter's story, Sweet Baby Dr. Lipschitz was made, and how Susie appeared in Tommy's dream as a baby-baby was just how she looked in my story, The What If Susie Story. Also, the gift that Jesse pulled out from a pile of toys when wanting to play Okey-Dokey Jones was indeed a present given to Tommy by Olaughlinhunter for his birthday, as mentioned in chapter 34 of Ask the Dynamic Trio. I also hope I did okay with that Loud House spoof, which was the dream Tommy had where all of his friends turned into baby-babies upon touching vomit. I thought of the idea prior to the premier of the episode, when it came up in a conversation between me and Boris Yeltsin, and heck, The Loud House did their own take on a Rugrats episode, this past week, they aired an episode called Cereal Offender, where Lincoln goes to the supermarket and does whatever it takes to get himself the cereal he wants for breakfast after seeing an ad for the cereal on TV, a spoof on the Rugrats episode, Incident in Isle Seven, where Tommy goes to the supermarket, and does whatever it takes to get himself a box of Reptar cereal, after seeing an ad for it on TV prior to going to the store. So I'm like, hey, if The Loud House is going to do their own take on a Rugrats episode, then who says on Fan Fiction, I can't attempt to spoof a Loud House episode with Rugrats characters? Anyway, I hope you all enjoyed the chapter, and, there's not too much more to go. Hopefully, I'll have the last and final chapter of this story, up sometime later on today.


	15. A Lesson Well Learned

Author's Note: I forgot to mention at the end of the previous chapter, that the bit towards the end of the chapter where Tommy stayed awake to watch Reptar instead of falling asleep and taking his nap, and then being upset when Peter turned it off, was inspired by my nephew,when a similar occurance has happened in my presence. Also, his line, "What happened to Reptar?" was a parody of a line that my nephew use to ask me if we were watching Curious George via Hulu on my iPhone in the car, and we lost the Internet connection, causing the show to disappear. Upon the show disappearing, he'd ask, "What happened to George?" Also, towards the beginning of the chapter, when Celeste was putting Zack to bed in the story, part of his bedtime routine, in particular, the part where he said goodnight to the appliances, and drinking his bottle while his aunt read to him, were inspired by my nephew's bedtime routine. Also the foods he ate for dinner and what he had for dessert are things my nephew likes in real life, and the part where Tommy helped himself to some frozen blueberries in the freezer when his teeth and gums were bothering him was also inspired by my nephew, as that's something he use to do back when he was going through that phase. Anyway, it's finally time, to reach the conclusion of this story! So with that said, let's get started with the last and final chapter!

Chapter 15, A Lesson Well Learned

Tommy awoke from his nap. Upon hearing some stirring coming from the living room, Peter stopped playing the Fire Emblem game he was playing on his iPhone to go check on Tommy and Dil, when he saw they were waking up.

"Hi Tommy and Dil, did you have a nice nap?" Peter asked, taking a seat in one of the easy chairs, as Dil sat up on his blanket on the floor and rubbed his eyes.

"Uh huh." Dil replied, as Tommy sat up on the sofa and looked around.

"Yeah, I had a nice nappy, but what about that machine?" Tommy asked.

"Don't you boys want a snack first?" Peter asked.

"No I wanna see this machine you and daddy were talking about at dinner concerning the Lipschitz." Tommy replied, standing up and walking towards the exit of the living room into the hall that led to the basement door.

While he was still not as energetic as usual, the dizziness had disappeared, and he was on the mend as far as getting over his stomach flu was concerned.

"Dil?" Peter asked.

"Can I go too?" Dil asked.

"I think it would be best, if you play up here in the playpen. We'll be back shortly, as Lucy and Susie should be here any minute with their special get well gift for Tommy, even though he's mostly over the virus now, it is the thought that counts." Peter whispered into Dil's ear, as he placed the nearly one-year-old toddler into the playpen, who went straight to playing with some blocks, while Peter ran off and caught up to Tommy, who was now standing over by the closed basement door, which had one of those child proof things on the doorknob.

"Are you ready Tommy?" Peter asked.

"Yes Peter let's go." Tommy said, as Peter opened up the door and they headed downstairs to the basement.

Luckily, they'd know if somebody was at the door, thanks to the monitor that was downstairs, as seen in the Tommy's First Birthday episode. Peter led Tommy over to the Age Decreaser, and explained the different parts of the machine to him.

"Okay Tommy, this, is the Age Decreaser. Over on the right, is a computer screen, and in front of it is this miniature keyboard where we enter in the age we wish to turn the person back to, like for example, one-years-old. Behind the computer screen is a big red power button. That's what turns on the machine. On the left is the purple beam. When the machine is powered on, the person being zapped stands in front of this beam, and then their picture shows up on the screen. And in between the purple beam and the screen is this lever here. If I press down on this lever when the machine is powered on, the purple beam will zap the person that's standing in front of it, and they'll become the age that was entered into the machine via the mini keyboard. And not to worry, as soon as the machine is finished zapping the person to the age entered, it will shut off automatically, as a safety measure, so no further damage can be done by accident." Peter explained, while pointing to the different parts of the machine.

Tommy stared in fascination at the device.

"Wow neat! So when the Lipschitz came to my house, daddy must have showed him this machine, and that's how he turndid into a baby." Tommy said.

"Exactly." Peter replied, just as a loud noise went off in the basement, startling the two of them.

"Doorbell! Doorbell! Doorbell!" The system said, as Peter went over to a panel on the wall and pressed a few buttons.

On the screen were Lucy and Susie standing on the front porch.

"Hello Lucy and Susie, it's Peter here. I'm watching Tommy and Dil for the afternoon, but I'll be right up to let you two inside." Peter said.

"Okay Peter, we'll be waiting." Lucy said, her voice coming over the video intercom doorbell speaker.

Peter pressed a button to turn off the monitor, picked up Tommy, and the two of them headed back upstairs, where he closed the basement door behind him and they went and let Lucy and Susie inside.

"Thanks for stopping by to pay Tommy here a visit." Peter said, letting Lucy and Susie into the house.

"How is he doing?" Lucy asked.

"He's still a little tired, but he's doing much better. He's certainly not throwing up anymore which is always a relief." Peter said, carrying Tommy into the living room, where he sat him down on the couch, and let Lucy look him over.

"Well, his fever seems to be gone, and he's looking a lot better. He's definitely on the mend. Susie, would you like to give Tommy your get well present to him while Peter and I go talk in the kitchen?" Lucy asked.

"Sure mommy." Susie replied, taking a seat next to Tommy on the couch while Lucy and Peter went into the kitchen to have a cup of tea and talk for a little bit while the kids played.

"Hi Tommy, I hear you haven't been feeling too well lately. How are you doing?" Susie asked.

"I'm better." Tommy replied.

"Well that's good. Here, I have something for you." Susie said, handing him a pink envelope and a blue Reptar lunchbox, along with a DVD on the very bottom of the stack.

"Thanks Susie!" Tommy cried, tearing open the pink envelope to find a large piece of paper that was folded in half.

The piece of paper was white, and when Tommy unfolded it, he saw that Susie had drawn a picture of Jelly Bear giving Tommy a hug.

"It's a get well card. I made it myself!" Susie said,as Tommy put the card down next to him on the sofa and opened up the blue Reptar lunchbox.

Inside was what looked like a plastic figurine of Reptar, but what it really was in actuality was a thirmas. Reptar's tail was the handle, his head was the top, and you took his head off and the contents inside the thirmas would go inside his body. And inside the thirmas was some of Lucy Carmichael's home made chicken noodle soup.

"It's a Reptar thirmas. It came with the lunchbox and keeps food warm. And inside is some of my mommy's home made chicken noodle soup." Susie explained.

Tommy was tired of chicken noodle soup, but he decided to be polite.

"Thanks Susie, I'm sure it's nummy!" Tommy said, as he put down the lunchbox and picked up the last item, a DVD.

On the cover of the box was Happy Bear, but he didn't look too happy, and the doctor from The Land without Smiles movie, was examining him.

"That DVD there is my favorite Dummi Bears one to watch when I don't feel well. It's called, Ways to Feel Better when Feeling Under the Weather." Susie explained.

"Thanks Susie, I'm feeling better already." Tommy said, giving her a hug.

"You're welcome Tommy." Susie replied, smiling and returning the hug.

Tommy sat back on the couch and stared Susie straight in the eye, realizing after his recent trip down to the basement, that he had something else he needed to tell her.

"Oh, and Susie?" Tommy asked.

"Yeah?" Susie replied.

"I've gots something else to tell you." Tommy said.

"What is it Tommy?" Susie asked, placing his new movie, lunchbox, and get well card on to the coffee table so nobody would sit on them on the sofa by accident.

"Member way back when before Dilly was born when the Lipschitz came to my house, and we accused you of not believing us that the Lipschitz was a baby? Well, I was wrong. You were right. The Lipschitz is really a growed up like my mommy and daddy." Tommy said.

"Then why was he a baby at my birthday party and that time I came over to play when you guys were playing with a box?" Susie asked.

"Cuz my daddy turndid him into a baby by accident with a machine he has downstairs that makes peoples littlerer." Tommy replied.

"He does?" Susie asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Yeah! If you can help me get the door open, I can show it to you." Tommy said, getting off the couch and heading for the basement door.

Susie caught up to him, unsure if they should be going down there without permission.

"Uh, Tommy, I'm not sure if we should be going down there without Peter or your mommy and daddy's permission." Susie said.

Tommy then realized she was right. After all, he and his friends had gone down there back when the Lipschitz was a baby and they got in trouble for doing that. Then, he remembered Peter showing that Mr. Mucklehoney guy a picture of the device. Curious, he wondered if he still had it.

"Wait a minute Susie, you're right. But I've gots an idea!" Tommy cried, running into the kitchen where Peter and Lucy were talking and sipping on their tea.

Tommy snuck up behind Peter and started pulling on the sleeve of his gray Confederacy uniform. Startled, Peter dropped his mug of tea on the table and turned to see Tommy next to him.

"Hold on Lucy, I'll be right back." Peter said, getting up from the table and heading into the living room for a minute with Tommy.

While he could talk to the toddlers, he tried to keep such activity discrete from the other adults, since he was the only one who could understand them who was closer in age to their parents. Once they were in the living room, Peter knelt down to Tommy's level.

"What is it Tommy?" Peter asked.

"Susie was curious about that machine you were showing me before she gotted here, and then I remembered, you had a picture of it and of the Lipschitz at dinner the other yesterday night." Tommy said.

"Oh yes, I did! Let me see if they're still in my pocket." Peter said, as he rummaged through one of his back pockets, and sure enough, he found the three photos.

Once he saw he had pulled out the correct three photos, he handed them to Tommy, then returned to the kitchen so as to not leave Lucy hanging any longer.

Tommy and Susie sat down on the floor and he showed her the pictures.

"See? This is the picture of the machine."' Tommy explained, as he went on to show Susie the different parts of the Age Decreaser in the picture and explained them to her, just as Peter explained them to him.

"And this is Lipschitz after he was zapped into a baby." Tommy said, showing her a picture of Dr. Lipschitz, and Susie recalled that's how he looked at her birthday party.

"And this, is the Lipschitz as a growed up." Tommy said, showing her the picture of him as an adult, the way she recalled seeing him when she arrived at the dinner before he was turned into a baby.

"Wow!" Susie cried.

"Yeah, so anyways, I'm sorry I didn't believe you." Tommy said apologetically.

"That's okay Tommy." Susie said, just as Lucy came into the living room.

"Susie sweetie, it's time for us to go. We'll be coming over tomorrow night for dinner though." Lucy said, grabbing her daughter's hand.

"Tomorrow night? I could swear the dinner was tonight." Peter said, raising an eyebrow.

"Well I got a text from Didi stating that several of our friends kids are still sick, and they'd like to make sure they're better and don't have fevers before the dinner." Lucy said.

"Ah, makes sense." Peter said, leading Lucy and Susie to the door.

Tommy put the pictures on one of the end tables by the easy chair, then went off to play with Dil. While the rest of the day was relatively quiet, Tommy couldn't help that he was still somewhat tired, and didn't mind heading off to bed early that night after dinner. He awoke the next morning, feeling very refreshed, and it hit him what the lesson was he needed to learn.

Later that day, the Finsters, Devilles, Wehrenbergs, Barrows, the Carmichaels, and Angelica's family along with King Peter Albany all came over to Tommy and Dil's place for a nice dinner of steaks on the barbecue that Stu had prepared. Even Lou and Lulu came, as she had been on her antibiotic for Strep enough days that she'd no longer spread the disease, and while Boris and Minca were invited, they had Torah Study at Sinnogog that night and couldn't make it. And Taffy was also suppose to come, but she had a gig with her band at Slosh Mountain, and couldn't make it to the dinner either. However, everybody that did make it was happy to be there, though the toddlers all had a bone to pick with Tommy. Once they were placed down into the playpen, they all gave unpleasant looks in Tommy's direction.

"What's wrong you guys?" Tommy asked.

"You made me and Lillian sick." Phil protested.

"Yeah! We were throwing up and pooping everywhere!" Lil added.

"And I don't know how many times I had to use the potty over the last couple of days." Chuckie said.

"It wasn't fun at all." Kimi added.

Zack and Jesse nodded their heads in agreement.

"I'm sorry you guys." Tommy apologized.

"But he's all better now, and Susie gave him some nice gifts." Dil said, pointing over to the Dummi Bears DVD that was sitting out on the TV stand next to the DVD player.

All of the toddlers forgave Tommy, as they knew he didn't mean to make them sick, and soon, everybody had dinner. It was a picnic outside, where they had steak cooked on the grill, and an assortment of salads, including potato salad, tortilini pasta salad, and Lucy brought a home made three bean salad. Didi insisted that nobody bring coleslaw to this event, not after that time when that's all anybody brought that Fourth of July when Lou and Lulu had returned from their bus tour across America.

During dinner, Celeste, who was sitting across from Didi, struck up some conversation with her upon Didi making this comment.

"I've noticed ever since you attended that Lipschitz seminar, Zack has been showing up, a bit more energetic and ready to play with Tommy and the other kids." Didi commented.

"That's because I'm trying to get Zack more on a regular bedtime routine at night. You and Doctor Lipschitz were correct, kids do need limits, and I know for me, I've felt more rested after sleeping in bed at night opposed to on the sofa in a sitting position, and I believe this is true for Zack too. I've also signed him up for music classes at the community center. They start in September and meet every Saturday, and if the rest of you think your kids would be interested in joining us, I'd be happy to take them to these classes every week if you can't bring them." Celeste said.

"It would be a great way to introduce the kids to some music appreciation." Kira commented.

"And according to the pamphlet, these classes will help our kids gain listening skills and learn how to follow directions, helping them to prepare for preschool." Chas commented.

"I guess we can give it a try, the pups do seem to enjoy music." Betty said.

"I definitely think it would be good for Jesse, seeing that believe it or not, preschool for our kids is barely another year away." Laura said.

"That's a wonderful idea! I'll definitely be signing Tommy and Dil up for these classes. Thank you Celeste." Didi said with a smile, as she took another bite of potato salad on her plate.

"You're welcome Didi, thanks for bringing me to the seminar. Thanks to you, I now have the tools necessary to be a better aunt and guardian to my nephew." Celeste replied, taking another bite of steak on her plate.

Everybody enjoyed their dinner, and all of the toddlers were pleased to have something other than chicken noodle soup, and that the food didn't make them throw up. Then for dessert, Chas had made an apple pie, a recipe his mother had given him, as she was a big baker, while Howard baked some chocolate-chip cookies, which naturally, Angelica wanted all of the cookies for herself, but her daddy reminded her that she had to share.

Not wishing to get in trouble, the four-year-old blond behaved, as everybody had their dessert, then while they saw to cleaning up from dinner, they put the kids into the living room and put on a Reptar movie for them on DVD. It was the movie, Reptar Comes Home, one of the ones that grandpa Lou had rented for Tommy and Chuckie to watch that night Morgana showed up out of nowhere. However, once Tommy saw the sun had fully set in the sky and the moon was up, he turned his gaze back towards the TV and then to his other friends, who were all watching, except for Susie and Angelica, who had gone off to another part of the house to play with Cynthia, not interested in watching the Reptar movie.

"Well, night night guys." Tommy said, standing up from the living room floor and heading towards the stairs.

Everyone gasp as they got up from their spots on the living room carpet and went to see what Tommy was up to.

"What do you mean night night Tommy?" Chuckie asked, upon reaching the bottom of the stairs, where Tommy had climbed partway up.

He turned around and stared down at his little brother and friends, who were all gathered at the bottom.

"You guys, it's time to go to bed." Tommy replied.

"What do you mean Tommy, nobody's making you." Jesse said.

"Yeah! Don't you wanna watch Reptar with us?" Lil asked.

"No!" Tommy snapped.

"You're not sick again, are ya?" Phil asked.

"No you guys, but if I don't go to bed, I could get sick again, or another booboo, or end up sleeping all day, missing out on all the fun with you guys." Tommy said.

"He's right. When you get a good night sleep, it is easier to stay awake during the day." Zack said.

"What do you mean Zack? Weren't you the one who toldid me that going to bed at night wasn't right." Tommy said, coming down the flight of stairs approaching Zack.

"Yeah, but that was before my aunty started putting me to bed at night. Ever since then, I haven't fallen asleep in the car, and it's pretty amazing some of the sights I've seen out the windows when my aunty is taking me places. I also find I'm lots more ready to play and stuff when I come over." Zack said.

"But what about Nigel Strawberry?" Kimi asked.

"I don't think me and Tommy are watching him no mores. Not after the lastest time." Dil said.

"What happened?" Chuckie asked.

"Well, we snuck down one night before Tommy gotted sick, after I had a nightscare. He turndid it on, and I was ascared by something called vampire bats on the show. He turndid it off and said we didn't gotta watch it no more." Dil explained.

"Oh, well if you wanna go to bed Tommy, then go to sleep I guess." Chuckie said.

"Yeah, we'll see you tomorrow." Phil added.

"Thanks guys, well night night." Tommy said, climbing the rest of the stairs and heading to his room, where he found his Reptar nightshirt on the bed.

He threw off his clothes and put on the nightshirt, though he put it on backwards, but he didn't seem to care, as he turned off the lights, closed the door, climbed into bed and went to sleep.

Sometime later, after dinner was cleaned up and the Reptar movie had ended, the parents came into the living room to find that all of their kids had passed out while watching the movie, including Dil. Stu carried his sleeping youngest child quietly upstairs, while the rest of the parents and Zack's aunt gathered up their kids, and carried their sleeping children out to the cars or in Phil and Lil's case, next door to their house.

"Thanks for coming." Didi whispered to each of her guests as they left, not wishing to awaken the sleeping children in their arms, then headed inside and up to bed herself.

During the night, Tommy had one final dream to feature Bop and the Germettes. This time, he was inside the blood stream with the army of white blood cells and Bop standing before them. Tommy saw that Bop was carrying a suitcase.

"What's the suitcase for Bop?" Tommy asked.

"It's my stuff, I'm out of here." Bop replied.

"Huh?" Tommy asked.

"Well Tommy, you've learned your lesson. Getting plenty of sleep at night is the key to staying healthy and not getting sick. Like that time you went with Chuckie to the library to get his first library card, and he was trying to explain the rules to you about the library, and you mentioned like the rule that you're spose to sleep until the sun comes up." Bop explained.

"Yeah, what about it?" Tommy asked.

"Well, sometimes, things are easier said than done. You knew the rule of going to bed at night all along, but like all kids, rules aren't always easy to follow, especially when you're convinced otherwise, but seems to me you've learned your lesson, and thus, I have no need to continue to be here, making you sick no more. So with that said, I surrender. Farewell Tommy." Bop said, just as an earthquake came along.

It felt like Tommy was going to throw up again, but rather, he just, let out a huge belch instead. The belch sent Bop, Tommy, and the plane piloted by Spike out of Tommy's body, and on to the bedroom floor of Tommy's room. Well okay, so that's where Spike and Tommy landed, while Bop landed on Dil's forehead.

"Oh no! Now Bop's gonna make Dil sick!" Tommy cried.

Before he could try to stop him though, Didi came in and lifted Dil out of his crib.

"Come on sweetie, time for your bath." Didi said, carrying Dil to the bathroom.

At one time, he hated baths, but now that he was bigger, he didn't seem to mind them so much now. Bop had considered going inside of Dil's body, only he never opened his mouth, only smiled up at his mommy as she placed him into the bath water filled with bubbles.

"No! Not a bath! Somebody! Help!" Bop cried, but it was too late.

Dil splashed bubbles and water on to himself, completely drowning Bop, as he disappeared under the water, and eventually, after Dil's bath was finished, just as Toots was washed down the drain when Professor Wiseman washed her hands, Boopity Bop Bop was washed down the drain when Didi emptied the bathtub post giving Dil his bath.

This in turn, ended the dream, where Tommy awoke briefly, only to fall right back to sleep, and sleep peacefully throughout the rest of the night.

The next day, all of his friends came over to play, and thanks to it being beautiful outside and everyone getting plenty of rest the night before, they went out into the backyard and played Okey-dokey Jones, and this time, they had lots of fun, and nobody got any booboos.

The End

Author's Note: Well, I do hope that everybody enjoyed this story. I would like to thank everyone who read, reviewed, and remained patient with me while I saw to releasing this story over the course of the last twenty days. I also hope you all liked this story, as I wanted to give a good picture of what can happen when you don't get enough sleep at night, and from a toddler's perspective, which can be really frustrating when you don't exactly have a concept of time, other than night and day. There was also another reference to Olaughlinhunter's story, Sweet Baby Dr. Lipschitz, and the idea where Tommy apologizes to Susie for not believing her and Peter showing him the Age Decreaser was given to me by Olaughlinhunter. I was also inspired once again, by the season 3 Rugrats episode, Naked Tommy, at the very end when Tommy tells Chuckie the pros of why it's a good idea to wear clothes, only in this case, I had him tell his friends and brother why it's important to go to bed at night, and as you can see, now Zack thinks it's a good idea too, realizing that he, too, was wrong about his bonehead idea in the first place, now that his aunt had gotten him to go to bed at night. Also, judging by the conversation we heard the adults having at dinner, Celeste is realizing the importance of placing limits and rules on her nephew, and we learn how getting them signed up for music classes at the community center came to be, as we saw mentioned in some of my stories that take place post this story, like in The Family Emergency and A Long Weekend for Tommy and Zack. And that point that Bop made in the dream at the end was a tiny reference to the season 8 Rugrats episode, Quiet Please. When Chuckie is about to explain the rules of the library to the babies, Tommy gives an example of a rule, that being the rule where you need to sleep at night until the sun wakes up, which obviously means that he knew the importance of going to sleep at night, but we all go through it as kids, rules aren't always easy to follow, until we learn the hard way, which was the point I was trying to make here in this story. I almost considered making this story uncannon to that particular episode, but then decided against it. Anyway, thanks for reading, and here's hoping I'll be releasing more stories,and or updating existing stories, very soon!


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